


Horseshoes and High Heels

by lightalwaysbreaksthedark (ginger_rae)



Category: Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, family fic, farm au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2018-10-10 11:32:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 60,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10436736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginger_rae/pseuds/lightalwaysbreaksthedark
Summary: This is a AU set on a farm in Wyoming. Originally it was going to be four parts but when I read it over again the chapters where way to long so I have broken up each part into two. This is a family fic so yes there are children. It also jumps back and forth in time, each time it is in the past it says it above and when it does't it is present day.





	1. Part 1.01

**Author's Note:**

> I know this probably won't be everyones cup of tea, but I really love this so please be kind. I wrote this basically just as an excuse to have a really fluffy established Claire and Owen, but of course things happen as well. I hope you enjoy.

**PROLOGUE**

Eight years ago Claire Dearing did something completely out of character. She created a new Claire, one that let her heart say yes before her mind could say no, one that wasn’t stuck in the small confines of a self created box, one that threw caution to the wild wind. But she told herself then and then there that it was a character she would inhabit for just one night and one night only. Claire Dearing being Claire Dearing however, was never one to do things by half’s and that night, that one night that was meant to be just a minor blip on the scale of her life, a night that would fade away into a collection of unimportant memories, instead took her by the reins and changed the path of her life completely, leading her into all of what she knew today.   

That Claire now had thirty-one years under her belt, a handsome husband that she adored and he in turn adored her, three gorgeous sons and one beautiful daughter to love and care for and on top of all of that she was the head of a family business that had the potential to generate millions of dollars. Never once did she think that this would be her life, children, a husband, a family business, she expected to be a corporate woman jetting off from place to place, to one meeting after another. Her closet filled with sharp pants suits and pencil skirts, instead of jeans and flannel button ups. Her twenty-one-year-old self would have laughed if she knew what she had coming her way, but her place was right where she was, on a farm, a few states over from her home town with dirt, cows, tractors and all.      

Her home was Elk and Oak Farmstead, one of the largest farms in the North East of Wyoming. Her home trucked away between snow capped mountains and roaring fields of barley and grazing cows, neighbour pastures peppered to the left and right of them, and a quant town kept them anchored to the rest of the world. A simple place with just one diner, a bakery, the smallest inn Claire had ever seen, and saddle shop to it’s name. They all said ‘what are you going to do with her?’ when the man she had fallen for finally brought her home to keep and showed her off to the people whom would now be her neighbours. She wondered that too when she had first arrived all those years ago, a charming cowboy luring her there with his smile and ten gallon hat. It was dirt and dust and everything that wasn’t Claire Dearing. She prayed for escape more times than she could count, to take him with her and trade his boots in for loafers. But she couldn’t be the one to break five generations of tradition and instead she found her purpose inside the scribble out books of Elk and Oak Farmstead.

Claire was trained and tuned to think like the worlds most highly regarded C.E.O’s  her brain was hard wired thanks to five years in the halls of Harvard. A girl that was made for the city streets but somehow found her place amongst the cowboys and learnt the ways of cattle trading, making a name for Elk and Oak amongst the biggest farms across the nation. While her husband sweat it out in the fields she curated the numbers, finding the value to her skills in a place that seemed so foreign. She had never felt that way before, like there was a purpose to her hard work and it helped that bit more when she cared about what she was doing.  They had carved their name for into the dirt and weren’t ever going to leave. The once struggling farm now brought out of the ashes by a red head to slight for farm work. Though sometimes she did need her husband there to remind her that they were just a quant family farm in Wyoming. He was quite fond of saying ‘You’re not running a theme park darling, it’s just some grass and some cows’.

A theme park, could you imagine?

Her husband the man, as sturdy as the surrounding mountains and as strong as the thickest iron along with their 70 strong work force pored their sweat into the American pasture, raising cattle, and game, growing crops and planting fruit trees. Along with tradition, Claire found them new ways to generate income, in certain seasons their farm would be used as a film set (never close to the Farmstead, but spare fields a few miles away) which Owen thought was ridiculous but when Claire explained to him that it would pay for the new stable block he had wanted for years, of course he thought it was the best idea she had ever had. They brought a new breath of life into their county and that is why Claire was sure Owen was Cody Wyoming’s favourite son. Maybe that was the a reason, but what cemented him and their farm into folk law was the mans god given talent to train the most untamable horses.

Elk and Oak was her adopted home, a place that kept traditions alive, it was a place to raise children and then grow old, a place to feel safe and too cherish in your heart and when the sunset across the fields, you knew that when it rose again a bright new day would be their waiting for you to seize it. She was weary when unsteady circumstances and a humble man  brought her to Wyoming and ripped her from those suburban streets she knew so well how to navigate and though it has it’s challenges, Claire Dearing was now wholly and happily a woman of the land.

**PART 1.01**

The Wyoming sun shone harshly down hitting Claire’s pale skin, kissing her with new freckles that were sure to appear later among the others, thankfully her floppy hat hung down over her forehead shading her eyes from the harsh rays. Her two youngest children out in front of her as they strolled the mile-long drive way to wait for the soon to arrive mail truck. Spring was her favourite time of the year, flowers were fresh to bloom, the air warming from the frost of winter and new life was breathed across the four thousand five hundred and eighty-seven (4587) acres of land she called home. She loved all the season that feel over Elk and Oak but there was something about spring that just made her warm inside and out, that gave each of her steps a little more glee.

The two sets of little legs belonging to her youngest child in front of her were working overtime to race down the dirt track and she couldn’t help but smile at her son curly blond hair and dirt covered singlet just seventeen months older than his little sister and trying to steer her away from the bigger rocks in their path. A chuckle left her mouth as she watched them toddled down the path that of the land that would one day be in their hands, which left her thinking with a warm heart about her two older boys who were half way through their day at school.

To her left new calves grazed by their mothers, with legs still learning how to stand steadily and far to her right there was a tractor ploughing a fresh field for something new to grow, but closer in her view sat the two round arenas they, ‘they’ meaning her husband used for training horses. The largest one was in use; a young stallion asserting his dominance by throwing his rear legs in the air with a verbal protest that followed, dirt and debris flying as the failing limbs tore in the air. Watching from under a heavy brim hat was her husband, standing in the ring his stance firm and commanding even with the wildness of the beast in front of him.

Their eye’s met from across the field hers and her husbands. Her green eyes on his baby blues each from under the shade of a wide brim hat, and his smile that left dents in his cheeks beamed so bright, it was infectious from a football field away. And oh man that that smile gave her a feeling that she still hadn’t learnt how to describe. 

[ --- ]

**SEVEN YEARS, ELEVEN MONTHS & TWENTY NINE DAYS EARLIER**

Claire’s last exam was done, five years of all-consuming study coming to a close at the drop of a pen. She had spent the last five years of her life with her head stuck in a book, studying at every spare moment, while she walked to class, while she ate even when she showered; her business degree far more important than wasting time at collage parties or going out for drinks at the local bar on a Friday night. She was top of her class at elementary school, her high school class president and valedictorian, she had a reputation to up hold and she wouldn’t be, couldn’t be anything less at collage.

But her studies were finished now and in three weeks’ time she would be standing in front of her family, friends and professors accepting her bachelor degree with honours. She was free to let her hair down and catch up on the five years of frivolous fun she had missed out on. Her small group of collage friends had been hounding her to attend the ‘final exam’ drinks that they had planned at the local sports bar for weeks now. Everyday they reminded her and every day she assured them she was coming. Even if it did take her a week to work up the courage to actually attend, she was going to go and when it came down to it she was actually rather excited about it. She had bought a new dress for the occasion and her make-up was flawless. She felt attractive and carefree just like a woman of her age should, but something that was completely foreign to her, and god damn it she was going to embrace it.

The night came quickly as she added one more puff of powder to her cheek and closed her front door behind her. She met one of her friend in the hallway of her apartment building at exactly nine o’clock and the two ladies making their way to meet up with the rest of their class mates with their much too high heels clicking along the wobbly pavement. Claire didn’t actually know how big this was going to be, whether it be just a few people she knew from her study group or half the school all piling into the bar at the end of her street. A place Claire had only entered into once before, but somehow knew that they had a surprisingly long selection of cocktails.

The place was smoky and feverishly loud and the scent of musk mixed together with harshly brewed alcohol hit her nostrils fiercely. Groups of students and suburban house husbands gathered under the varying television screens displaying more sports games than Claire could care about. Some music was playing obnoxiously through the ceiling speakers as it tried to get heard over the rowdy sports fans and gaggling frat boys, and yet somehow over all of that she heard her name called out from the back of ‘Toms Bar and Sports House’. Cassie, a girl from one of her study groups came giggled towards them, a drink already steady in her hand, and she pulled them towards the back of the bar with no mercy.

As Claire walked a step behind the already tipsy girl, dodging spilt drinks and flying peanut shells, her eyes darted around the room, taking in every corner until they paused on a man sitting lonely at a table just for one. He was defiantly by himself, not waiting for someone who was in the bathroom and his eyes were fixed on the ice hockey game on the TV above him. He was young she could tell that much, about the same age as her, and he certainly didn’t look like he belonged there. His cowboy boots stood out like a sore thumb. Her eyes wanted to linger on him, to stay there and study the creases around his lips, but only another step further and she was engulfed by the circle of friends eager to celebrate and the image of the lonely boy was lost into the depths of the rowdy bar.  

Drinks where handed her way and laughs where shared over professors hiccups over the years, but thirty minutes and a couple of cocktails later, Claire found herself sitting alone at the bar. Her friends were scattered chatting about impending careers and collage conquests around her but she wasn’t participating in any conversation; to focused on the strawberry and vodka cocktail she had just ordered. She could hear Cassie and two others chatting just to her side about the post graduation trip they had planned, when the fuchsia coloured drink appeared  between her fingers, tiny umbrella and all. She brought the glass up sipping it, the taste of spirits ripe on her lips a second later, and as she took another sip she noticed a man to her right from the corner of her eye. He was solid and tall, ordering a drink and choosing to stand awkwardly behind the bar stools rather than of taking a seat on one. She dismissed the man at first, swirling the umbrella in her hand, but with another brief glance she noticed it was ‘Cowboy Boots’.

He hadn’t taken any notice of her his eyes seemingly locked to the far side of the bar. Maybe it was vanity or maybe it was the drink from earlier kicking in but Claire was disheartened that his eyes hadn’t even grazed over her way, not to even sneak a peek at her some what enhanced bust. She had put a lot of effort into her appearance and she would like for it to be appreciated!

He ordered a Jack Daniels and Coke with a slice of lemon, which the bar tender went about making right away and it strangely left the space around them empty save for the man and her. Her body had shifted a little to the side while her eyes fluttered fleetingly in Cowboy Boot’s direction, she noticed his fingers tapping against the wood and how the blue of his shirt complimented his tanned skin. His eyes still hadn’t found their way to her even after a minute or so, but that gave Claire a chance to get a better look at him. He was handsome, very handsome but not in the typical sense, he was rogued and weathered even at his young age. His eyes were a beautiful shade of blue, the type she guessed would change depending on the light and she could tell he would have a nice smile just by the curve of his lips.

Something about him stole her focus, maybe it was his eyes, or simply his presence, or maybe it was the cowboy boots glad on his feet, but whatever it was, something from inside, a feeling she had never had before, was telling her to learn more about the man beside her.  

Clearing her throat Claire spoke first, “Hello”, She said in an incredibly confident voice which had even her surprised. But it was lost thanks to the cheer from a team scoring in one of the sports games playing across the television screens and he didn’t look her way. Clearing her throat again she repeated herself, it took a moment but then he turned his baby blues running over her face and the smallest smile now gracing his lips. He was even more beautiful from front on, which suddenly awoke the butterflies in Claire’s stomach.

“Hello” He said back, his voice so perfectly matching the rest of him.

He took a step forward, edging himself closer to her, close enough that Claire could now smell him. He smelt like…nature was the best way to describe it, like he was from the earth, raw and rouged and extremely manly on top of it. There was a brief moment, where each of them were waiting for the other to continue the conversation, each their eyes running over the others face as they stood in an awkward silence.  

Then Claire remembered that she had started the conversation which probably meant she should be the one to continue it, “I like your boots” She said swallowing her slight nerves, masking them with a gleeful smile and her eyes glanced down towards his thick leather shoes.

It wasn’t until she blinked that she realised what she had just said and the colour of her cheeks suddenly rose five shades of red. ‘I like your boots?’ seriously Claire.

He chuckled which was kind, a low rumble from the back of his throat. “Thank you, I like your heels” He compliment back, looking down at the white pumps she had clinging to her feet.

“Oh thankyou my, Mom bought them for me” She couldn’t stop herself, the words had already left her mouth. ‘My Mom bought them?’ Great run so far, Claire.  

“Well she has good taste” He chuckled again with a bright smile tugging into his cheeks, “I’m Owen” He said raising his voice over another cheer, and he offered her a colossal hand.

 “Claire” She smiled back and slipped her hand into his to shake.  

[ --- ]

By the dust stirred up on the dirt road it was easy to tell that the mail man wasn’t far away. Bobby was the ‘best mail man in North East Wyoming’, according to Bobby that was and he had been for twenty years. He was always on time, to the second and not once did he mix up a parcel, oh expect for that one time that must never be spoken about! Most delivery days he’d drive his rickety old truck up their long drive way to park outside the main house, bringing their mail right to their door, where Claire would have a cup of tea waiting. But the day had already been along one, and the confides of her office had Claire itching to get her and the children out into the fresh air, and so they made their way to wait for the mail at the front gate.   

She was expecting the rights to the patch of land they had just acquired, two hundred acres that sat just over the road, which was perfect for the new stable block they had been planning for god knows how long. Another reason she was eager for the mail truck.  It had been a fight to acquire the bit of dirt; prices flying high as competitors disheartened by their success tried to thwart their efforts of expansion. A part of this life she had yet learnt to grapple, of course she had expected it in the corporate world but it had never dawned on her that it would bleed, into her simple farm life.

Claire could hear the truck now, with her daughter on her hip and her son holding tightly onto her hand as they took the finally step to reach the farm’s gate. The rickety four-wheel drive was visible through the cloud of dust, and her children giggled happily, excited to see a fresh face. Within no time the truck pulled to a spot in front of them, the dust settling as the engine was turned off.

“Mrs. Grady, beautiful day isn’t it?” Bobby sung as soon as his door was open and foot hit the dirt of the road.

“It’s Claire, Bobby, and it is beautiful a nice break from the rain we’ve been having” She smiled.

Hugo her two-year-old was beaming at the trucks arrival, jumping his little legs up and down, excited to see the man he had calmed as a good friend. The little boy looked up to Claire with big green eyes, and she nodded letting his hand go, where he bound over to fetch the thermos of hot tea they had made for Mailman Bobby. The two-year old collected it carefully holding on tight to the metal as he lifted it from the toy wagon Claire had pulled behind her, and was by the grown mans side in a flash, holding it up with a giant smile. Bobby lifted the boy into his arms, taking the thermos gratefully with many thank yous and questions about Hugo’s day.

With Hugo still in his arms mail man juggled the back doors of his truck opened and swapped the tea for all that was address to Elk and Oak. “I hope this is what you are looking for” Bobby smiled when he handed over the pile of letters to Claire.

Thankfully it was, the biggest parcel of them all, marked with the logo she recognized as the real estate company they had been dealing with. There were other letter too, a whole stack of them with some junk mail mixed in but the letter on top she hadn’t been expecting it to branded with a logo but she couldn’t say she recognized it. Keeping to his schedule Bobby didn’t stay long, he put Hugo down ruffling his hair and waved them good bye while Claire flicked through her pile of mail to make sure what needed to be there, was there.

The dust stirring up once again, as the mail truck rattled off.   

The heat of the day was picking up fiercely as Claire piled the kids into the wagon for the journey back, the distance a little too much for their tiny bodies to handle. The wagon tinkered along the bumpy path and Hugo rattle off some wonderful childhood remarks that she would have to remember to wright down later. Her husband was still over in the arena while they troughed back towards the cottage, though now the stallion in there with him donned a saddle blanket and was displaying far less bravado than he had before. She watched him work as she pulled the wagon along till about half way down the path where she noticed his thick arm waving them over. Her first instinct was, “Really you want me to walk all the way over there?” but she gave in with a roll of the eye, changing their direction to meet him.

Hugo was on the man’s shoulders the second they reached the fence, the baby in his arms a second later. Both laughing from the depths of their belly’s as their father tickled them with showered kisses and Claire caught her breath after pulling the toy wagon across the thick and tractional grass. But it didn’t take her long to notice that the stallion was even more beautiful from up close. His coat was pure black, shining in the midday sun with one white dust covered sock on his front right hove. His mane was wild flowing down past the length of his neck, the thick black hair lined with a few small twigs and leaves.

“What’s his name?” Claire asked unable to tare her eyes away from the beast of an animal in front of her.

“He doesn’t have one yet?” Owen, her husband replied his eyes also fixed on the stallion.

Their youngest child and only daughter Everly was only one her birthday falling just a week earlier, she sat happily in her fathers’ arms clapping and reaching out for the horse, mumbling in her baby speak, a conversation that they were all meant’ to follow. She was just starting to form her vocabulary, which was currently her older brothers’ greatest form of amusement trying to get her to say ‘fart’ or ‘bum’ was their biggest ambition, and if she even got close it meant there would be roars of laughter for hours on end. She continued to mumble using her tiny fingers to point and little arms to explain what she meant which left both of her parents chuckling.   

“Really, is that so” Owen said with a happy nod and a nasally laugh.  

“Hey do you know who these people are?” Claire asked him, with a chuckle still on her lips as she remembered the unusual letter they had received in that day’s mail. She collected the envelope quickly from where she had put them in the wagon and handed it to him.

He flipped the envelope over back and forth, but looked just as puzzled as she had been, when he handed it back over to her, “In Gen? No never heard of them”

Claire studied it again for herself only for a second and sighed, “Yeah me either” 

[ --- ]

**SEVEN YEARS, ELEVEN MONTHS & EIGHTEEN DAYS EARLIER**

Cowboy Boots took the seat beside her, and the bar tender handed him his JD just after he hit the chair. “Are you a student?” He asked Claire, while taking a mouthful of alcohol.

“Yeah, I had my last assessment today. I graduate in a few weeks” She nodded with a relieved sigh, and she noticed his eyebrows raise.

Owen raised his glass, with a softened and if Claire wasn’t mistaken impressed face, lightly clinking it to the top of hers, “Congratulations”

Hiding her bright smile behind her glass, she nodded lightly “Oh thank you, I’m relieved it’s finally over”

That broke the ice and they talked easily while the bar stayed noisy around them, she told him all about her degree and she found out he was visiting his sister whom was in her first year of law school. She lost track of her friends as time ticked by even though they had tried waving her back over to join them, but instead she was happy to stay and talk to the man she had only just met. Half an hour must have gone by, before they were interrupted by the bar tender asking if they’d like another drink and this time Owen offered to buy her one, which she happily accepted, the new dress finally paying off. She ordered the same as him, Jack Daniels and Coke with a slice of lemon. She wasn’t one to usually drink whisky, but what the hell right?

“So where are you from?” Claire asked with the burn of spirits fresh in her throat.

“Wyoming my family owns a farm there” He told her with clear pride lacing into his words.  

“Well, that explains the boots” She chuckled swallowing back a snort she felt bubbling up.

The conversation was so interesting with him, she didn’t have to talk about her accounting class or the fact that Michael cheated on Jenny with her sister, which seemed to be all that Claire’s circle of friends could talk about at the moment. Instead she could talk about anything but and listen to a man from a completely different world than her and she got to ask things that she never thought she would ask anyone before, like … have you ever had to help a cow in labour? (which was a story he had brought up)

Before too long, another few questions and a rowdy cheer from the crowd later, their drinks where finished again and Claire was starting to find herself slightly gigglier than usual. She wasn’t yet drunk, definitely not, but if they kept it up she was certainly heading that way. Her friends left her during one of Owens anecdotes, moving onto another bar after trying their best to convince her to join them.  She declined seeing them off with insurances that she was fine and winks and raised eyebrows from a few of her girlfriends. Another hour past, with Owen buying her another drink, a cocktail this time and she explaining to him what people from hedge funds ‘actually do’.

Then suddenly through laughter and loud conversation, shots of tequila were placed in front of them.

He looked to her and she looked to him. Both blinking at the drinks that neither could remember ordering. Though probably placed in front of the wrong people, with a shrug of their shoulders and on the count of three they tossed them back, six disappearing right before their eyes.

With their forth one each in their hands they cheer’s throwing it back with the biting liquid sliding down their throats and glasses falling heavily onto the bar top.   

“Do you want to get out of here?” Claire whispered slow and sultry into his ear, before another shot could make it’s way into their hands. His eyes found hers wide with delight, and he didn’t answer her with words instead a smirk creased his lips and then a kiss graced hers.

[ --- ]

Night was always quick to fall over Elk and Oak as the blanket of darkness engulfed the surrounding mountains and owls sung out from the trees. The ‘big boys’ had arrived back a few hours earlier, scruffy and rowdy from their day at school. Claire never grew tired of watching them race from where the school bus dropped them at the front gate and into her waiting arms, happy to have them back and where they belong. Night brought them all back to the cottage, their little shelter amidst the acres of roaring fields. Her signature pasta sauce was simmering on the stove top while she grated cheese, children were scattered playing across the lounge room and Owen sat at the dining table helping their eldest finish his homework.

“You’re all done bud” Owen told his son, ruffling the boys hair, who was already racing to get to the toy covered floor of the lounge room.

Yet another box of, this time Lego blocks was tipped upside down by Finn, their middle son, followed by a heavy sighs from both adults. The pieces scattered far and wide, colours flying all over and the baby running for them before Owen could snatch her up. William, Owen and Claire’s eldest child took his role as a big brother very seriously and stopped his sister quickly before she could get close enough to the small blocks. He was the others protector, he was gentle and patient the others source of comfort if Mom and Dad weren’t around. William was such a gentle soul and reminded Claire so of Owen, he looked just like him, his hair was lighter in his youth but was sure to darken with age, their smiles matched and cheeks pulled into the same smirk, he even talked like him, but his eyes, his eyes they were all Claire.

“No bubba, not for you” William said gently, distracting baby Everly with the small trike that had snuck into the house without Claire’s knowledge. He helped her on to it and pushed her down the hallway, roaring laughter echoed throughout the cottage along with the sound of wooden block crashing on the hardwood floor when the structures would out grow their stability. (Sound effects usually added by the small architects). Their house easy ciaos next to the still and silent fields.  

Owen joined Claire in the kitchen after he had laid out the plates and cutlery, where his gentle yet colossal hand found the small of her back. He swayed behind her gently while he snuck a spoonful of sauce, before Claire could swat his hand away, which it she did very quickly.  

“Can you please open the rest of the mail honey?” She asked tasting the sauce for herself.

The mail had been forgotten all day; discarded on the counter top while she focused on the land deed and then all the other jobs that had to be completed by the end of the day. The pile was large an entire weeks’ worth of letters, mostly bills sitting in wait to be opened. Owen took the letter on top, the thickest one and the one that was most curios. He opened it, a thick group of papers unfolded in his hand and he started to read. His face it’s self was hard to read as his eyes flicked from left to right, Claire tried from over the stove but he stayed blank, his eyes moving quickly as they travelled down the page.  

“Oh for Fuck sake!” Owen spat loudly a moment later, when he had finished the letter.

“Owen!” Claire scolded him quickly which was followed by the two oldest boys letting their father know that he owed them each a dollar.

Ignoring the boys he took a deep breath and his eyes locked to Claire’s wide and fierce. She took the letter from his out stretched hands to read for herself.

**Dear Mr. Grady,**

**I would like to introduce myself, I am Steven Maxwell Assets Manager, of InGen.**

**InGen is a global company devoted to the progress of technologies and bio-engineering. We have been surveying properties in your area and are interested in the possibility of purchasing your land. We would very much like the chance to meet with you in person to discuss our proposition. InGen, understands that you and your family currently reside on the property and that you have owned this property for a many number of years but you’ll find we are willing to pay a very substantial sum to accommodate you. If you agree to our terms, we will work with you to ensure you and your family are well taken care of. You’ll find attached, our land exchanging policy’s and guides along with further information about our company. If you require any further information we will be more than willing to send it to you.**

**We have a highly qualified and trusted team of property evaluators that once approved will work with you and any one you choose to give your land the most accurate appraisal. From there we are open to negation, and will ensure that your family and any live stock are relocated safely and any expenses will be compensated. If you wish to discuss our proposition any further please contact me at the following address.**

**Regards,**

**Steven Maxwell.**

Claire let out a heavy sigh and her eyes rolled ever so slightly. This wasn’t the first time they had received a letter like this one, every few years a big company would drop a letter in their mail box, in the hopes of buying their land. Sometimes it was competitors trying to run them out of business or other times it was company’s looking for oil or dollars in the soil. Either way it was annoying. The Grady’s had owned that land for five generations and they weren’t planning on leaving.

“Don’t worry about it babe, we’re not selling. They’ll just have to find some other farmers to run out of their home” She breathed throwing the letter in her pile for shredding.

“You’re right” Owen nodded.

Claire smiled weakly finding his hand running her thumb over his wrist and she rose to her toes to press her lips softly against his.

[ --- ]

**SEVEN YEARS, ELEVEN MONTHS & TWENTY NINE DAYS EARLIER** 

His lips were soft on hers, the taste of tequila and salt intensified as their plush lips met for the second time. Giggling with red cheeks, Claire slipped her hand into his, pulling him out of the bar and into the street. The night was cool outside, but the slight bight was nice against her warmed skin and air light after being surrounded by smoke for hours on end. Claire’s apartment was only five-minutes away, her heels clicking along the familiar path while his boots clunked beside her, following each step with an eager smile. Owens hand hadn’t left hers the whole walk home. Their hips bumped a few times when the side walk narrowed but other than the giggles that followed it was silent.

The walked seemed longer than it should have, like the pavement was moving underneath like a treadmill. Until finally her building showed like a beacon in the dead of night. She pushed in her pass code, the numbers clicking purely on instinct and the sturdy door unlocked for both of their bodies to fumble in. His lips where on hers; passionately this time not like in the bar, hungry and fast. His hands ran up and down her back eventually finding her hair before they could even reach the stair case. Hers followed his path starting on his back than making it to his hair.

It was a breathless and a fight to find their way up the stair case, finally finding her floor, third and the corridor to the left through their need to touch each other. Owen was walking backwards as Claire directed them, mouths still connected, when they finally reached her front door. Her handbag seemed endless, as she could hear the keys rattling in its depths but they were feisty at alluding her grasp. Then finally, finally she felt the cool metal against her fingertips, her face beamed, pulling them out of her bag at lightning speed a right into the lock. 

Claire had never in her life brought a stranger back to her house. It had never even crossed her mind, she was never that girl, her friends laughed and told stories about one night stands  but she never had anything to contribute to the conversation. It was only ever her a past boyfriend’s that had crossed the threshold of her apartment let alone that of her bedroom. For tonight however she was a girl having fun and with the a cowboy from Wyoming was the best kind of fun she could think of.

His strong arms, solid as tree trunks lifted her onto his hips before the front door was even closed and Claire reach out to kick it, hoping to hear the thud of it closing behind them. It did, loudly shaking the walls, and she directed him through shaky breaths down her hall. His hands held firm on her thighs as his boots carried them further into the darkened apartment the only noise entering their ears subtly from halfway down the hallway, where her roommate was enjoying her boyfriend’s company, behind closed doors.

He stopped, chest heaving, smirk etched so deeply into his right cheek and eye brows raised to acknowledge the sound. They laughed together, Claire’s head falling onto Owens shoulder where his hot lips started to trail up her neck. He turned sharply pushing them against the wall, pressing his chest closer, so much closer in hers and his hand trailed down her side pulling the zip of her dress along with it.

“My rooms the next door” Claire breathed, and Owen pulled them off the wall to find the next door.

[ --- ]

It was easy to tell that the letter they had received from InGen was bothering her husband. He had been quiet over dinner, filling his mouth with food just so he didn’t have to speak and when it came time to read the bed time story his voice lacked it’s usual enthusiasm. His eye’s where tutored as they cleaned the kitchen, shoulders slouched and hands lazy as he washed the final dish. The clock ticked and on the dot he dried his hands, feet carrying him to the door, and hat on his head before it was 8:31.

“Back soon” He whispered low, closing the cottage door behind him.

Claire nodded with a weak smile, hands moving rhythmically as she wiped down the bench and she hopped so deeply that cheeking the horses would clear his head. He checked the stables every night at eight thirty like clockwork. He’d make sure the horses were all settled and still in their stalls, he’d check if all the latches where firm and their water troughs full. He was never gone for long fifteen minutes tops and she could always tell when he was back by the clunk of his boots hitting the outside deck. 

This night he seemed to be gone for longer and Claire somehow had made it back to her desk by the bay window reading over the order form she would be sending off in the morning. She felt the breeze from the door open after another few minutes of checking things off and the sound of his hat falling onto its hook.  

“I’m going to bed” He said gently leaning his hands on the back of her chair and she felt a soft kiss dropped on the top of her head.  

Claire rest her cheek against his arm, smile weak against his skin, “I’ll be in, in a minute”

He was already dressed down to his boxer shorts and the sheets on his side of the bed were pulled back when Claire came into their room. “Are you okay?” She asked softly as she closed their bedroom door behind her and swept into the en suit on the other side of the room.

He was sitting on the bed now and let out a heavy sigh, Claire could see him shrug in the mirror as she took off the little bit of make-up she had put on that morning. “I’m just tired” He answered eventually and ran his hands heavily over his face.

Sometimes Claire needed reminding of how heavily the weight of his family legacy sat on his shoulders, how much this land was a part of him and he a part of it. Though the letter miniscule in terms of problems, it chiselled at his pride for his home and reminded him constantly of how much he needed to work to keep his homes, his. That in turned transferred to her, ‘for better or for worse, your problems are my problem’s’ that was the promises that they made and just as night was to give them sleep maybe wondering minds would keep it from them.       

She pulled her over shirt slowly from her torso, flinging it to the washing pile, while keeping her eyes on Owen through the mirror, though they left him for just a moment while she wiped off the last bit of foundation from under her eye. She paused to look at herself once the make up had been cleared, just to examine how much the day had taken a toll on her youth when she noticed the bit of lace peeking out from under her singlet. She remembered then the need she felt that morning to feel feminine and attractive under the layers of denim and flannel, and her favourite lace lingerie she had put on as a result. A smirk fell upon her lips and there was playful glint in her eye as she stepped back into the main room happy to give each of them a chance to escape.       

He had switched the main light off, the only light in the room now coming from his bed side table and she began to slip the layers of clothing from her skin, slower than usual, making sure his eyes from across the room were following every move that she made. She heard him suck in a breath as she unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down over her backside to. Padding softly around the bed they didn’t speak but his gaze followed her, with wide and wanting eyes. When she reached him his legs were swung over the side, his strong arms behind him holding up his heavy frame as he leaned back. She nudged his knees apart with her thigh to accommodate her slighter frame between his legs and his arms snaked around her back to press her closer to him.

“Don’t worry about that stupid letter, they can’t do anything. This is our land and our home” Claire whispered her hands rubbing softly over the stubble covering his cheeks.

He nodded softly letting his head fall between her breasts where he sighed with his whole body and her hands coursed through his hair. His hot mouth found the mound of her breast and began to moved inch by inch up her chest and to her neck, while his hands unhooked the latch of her bra. She laughed from her nose and her hands ran down his hair to broad shoulders where she pushed him down, both of them falling heavily onto the plush duvet. 

[---]

**SEVEN YEARS, ELEVEN MONTHS & TWENTY NINE DAYS EARLIER**

Owen laid her on down on the duvet his arm holding strongly onto her back, while she could feel him kicking off those cowboy boots. His lips were on her skin again and his hands worked hard to slip the dress from her skin, hers also working hard to pull the white tee from his. The chiffon melted away, pooling on the floor and her eyes grew wide as his tee did the same, her hands ran their way down his torso stopping at the cool metal of his belt which she pulled from his hips like faster than the speed of light. He rolled his body against hers and his hands slid then down, finding the band of her lace underwear. His fingers ran over the lace and slipped smoothly underneath pulling them down as Claire could feel his body respond to hers.

She moved her hands from where they dug into his shoulders down to unbutton and unzip the fly of his jeans. He stopped the decent of his lips down her torso to help her push his pants down his legs and soon the only piece of clothing between them was the beige coloured bra that only teased the man of what was underneath. His hands ran first over her backside then up her spine to find the clasp of her bra and they instinctively pushed off the mattress just slightly to release the fabric from between them. His pupils grew dark when he took in her natural state, his teeth were nipping at her skin just a second and his hands cupped her breast, massaging them and enlightening her senses to a whole new level of ecstasy.   

“Condom?” Owen asked breathlessly while running his bottom lip along her shoulder.  

“Second draw” She breathed and he pushed up to fumble open the second draw of her bedside table.

Owen leaned past her reaching out his long arm and came back to her with a shiny purple packet in his hand and a smirk across his face. He was too eager for his own good the plastic proving too difficult for his fumbling hands to open. He tired seven different ways to pull it open while she panted underneath him but the plastic still went unbroken. When the frustration got too much and he put the corner of the packet between his teeth and went to rip it open.  

Claire jolted to stop his hand. “I got it” She panted and took the purple packet from between his teeth.  

[---]

Owen stirred beside her making it impossible to fall into sleep after returning from rocking the baby back to sleep. The morning wasn’t ready to arrive just yet the sun still not risen but the promise of its appearance in the glow through the trees. He had been tossing and turning all night; kicking off the blankets and rocking the bed with his sturdy weight. She had kicked him a few times through the night for disturbing her sleep but now she would just wait with heavy eyes until he was settled.

“Are you awake?” Owen whispered into the still room. 

“Mmmm” She hummed adjusting the pillow under her head. Her efforts to get comfortable didn’t make a difference when he pulled her across his chest.

“That letter really bothers me” He sighed while he stroked Claire’s arm that was now draped over him.

“I know”

“People shouldn’t be allowed to do that to other people. Say that they want to pay them out of their home” He said through heavy breaths making Claire’s loose hairs flicker rhythmically across her face. 

“It’s wrong but there are people out their less fortunate than us that would take the money” Claire whispered back.

She felt him nod and drop a kiss to the top of her hair. His chest rising and falling under hers. “We should get some sleep” He yawned which made her do the same. Their eyes already heavy slipped easily back into the realm somewhere between sleep and consciousness.

As Claire dreams were starting to play out like painting, “Mommy!” rang out suddenly from the depths of the cottage disturbing the quiet that had just fallen.

“Why is it always me?” Claire groaned her eyes snapping open once again.  


	2. Part 1.02

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is the second bit of Part 1. Thanks to everyone who has left feed back it is so much appreciated. 
> 
> This chapter is some more family fluff, and of course there's the flash backs too. 
> 
> Hope you like it.

**PART 1.02**

SEVEN YEARS, ELEVEN MONTHS & TWENTY EIGHT DAYS EARLIER

Claire’s eyes snapped open when the morning sun hit her face through the gap in the window curtain. Her eyes were sore, glossed over, not yet ready for the day that was to come and so they snapped back closed again, but that’s when she realised… her bed was harder than it should have been, and it was warmer .... and moving. Claire sat bolt upright with a quick jolt, the events of the night before suddenly flooding into her mind like a ramped wave of uncertainty.

There was a boy in her bed.

A naked boy.

The boy stirred. Claire’s flailing limbs found their way up and out of the tangled white sheets like a rocket launching into space. Her feet hit the soft carpet, her toes bumping the sweat pants that had been conveniently left laying on the ground right by her bed and she began stuffing her legs acrimoniously into the pants.  

“Where’s the fire?” His husky sleep riddled voice grumbled as he rubbed his eyes to adjust to the fresh morning light.

“Hi” Claire stuttered blinking wildly as he stared up at her with those ridiculous blue eyes. “I umm - didn’t expect you to be here when I woke up” She confessed sheepishly. “But I - I don’t really know how this is supposed to work”

He laughed at her, the smile across his face embarrassingly making her knees forget about gravity. She could see more clearly the muscles on his chest in the light of day and the scar on the left side of his rib cage that she had run her fingers over while they had been press together in the still of the night. His clothes were scattered across her room, all of them out of his reach. He would have to get up if he wanted them, which he did, and the sheet covering his modesty slipping from his skin leaving him bare as the day he entered this world.

Of course she had seen all he had to offer the night before. But it had been dark and busy which meant she didn’t have the chance to appreciate him, it took all of herself control to looked everywhere but his tanned skin. She snuck in a few glances as he added items of clothing to his body and he had a mile wide grin across his face with every tug on his jeans, she had the feeling he didn’t mind her gaze.

“I’m glad you walked into that bar last night. You made this trip a whole lot better than I expected it to be” Owen, the boy she had brought home, told her with his voice now back to its manly base. Their eyes met for the briefest moment till her eyes flicking to the ground, cheeks reddening and her hands fiddled with the bottom of her sloppy joe.  “And I don’t just mean the .... I had a really great time talking to you”

“Yeah me too” Claire smiled fleetingly. “I’ll be right back” She had to leave him for a minute. Just a minute, and she rushed to the bathroom in desperate need of a splash of water on her face. She seriously needed to pull herself together. Sure until last night it had been six months since she had last had sex. And true she avoided the hallways that she may have the slightest chance of running into her ex. But she usually wasn’t this awkward with the opposite sex. Was she?

The water helped.

He was fully dressed by the time she came back, boots, hat and all. “Would you like a coffee or something?” Claire offered, stuffing her hair behind her ear. 

“I’d like that really. I would. But my sister is probably wondering where I am” 

Claire nodded to the ground and would be lying if she said she wasn’t a little disappointed. She would have happily gone to the nearest coffee shop and talked for a few more hours to the handsome cowboy that had made her end of exam celebrations that much more fun. “Oh of course” She nodded softly instead and swallowed the disappointment hopefully subtly enough.

“I had a really great time last night Claire” He told her with an honest smile.

“Yeah me too” She chuckled ever so lightly and her eyelashes fluttered gently. His big green eyes didn’t leave hers and he took the few steps between them. Then his lips where on hers again, a feeling she could more than get used to and her toes had risen onto their tips, their bodies swaying gently while their lips pressed together heavily.

“I hope to see you again sometime” He breathed against her cheek when they broke apart.

Then with one glance back, he left. 

…and it didn’t occur to her, until at least twenty minutes later that she had forgotten to ask for his phone number or even his last name.

[---]

Owen got over the letter in a few days and had completely forgotten about it within a week. Claire was grateful he had thought no more of InGen and whatever they wanted out of their family. If not just for the fact that she could have a proper night’s sleep, it had been unsettling her to. Something was different about their letter it wasn’t the same as the ones they had received before. This one was cocky like they had the upper hand, like she and Owen didn’t know something that they did. Life on the farm flowed normally however, claves grew taller and fatter, crops flowered reading for harvest, horses came to them wild and left them healed and the young stallion had been given a name. Nuka was Owens pet project. Claire could barely drag him in for dinner, he’d spend hours in the ring with that animal; their wills a match for one another.

Claire watched them from the window of her office, her office in the old Stockmans Quarters that Owen had converted into an office for her and the three ladies that helped her keep up with the never ending paper work and networking that kept Elk and Oak going. She watched from the window just over her computer screen, her husband to one side and Nuka to the other a Mexican stand-off in full force. It was a little funny to see the man meet his match. Usually within a few days he would have the horses eating out of a palm of his hand, but now ten days in he could barely get a saddle on him.

Her view was blocked however, by Bobby and his mail truck after just a few minutes, giving her the perfect reminder to get back to the work in front of her. It took her just one quick email to be back knee deep in it. Time always flew when she was heavy in progress sheets and order forms. She hadn’t even noticed the fifteen minutes that went by.

It was the door slamming open and the sound of heavy work boots that gave her a fright and forced her to look past her screen to the door at the front of the room. Owen was stomping heavily, the mud on his boots shaking off just from the force of his walk and she was sure steam bellowing out of his ears. “They did it again!” He grunted angrily and the eyes of the office lady’s locked onto the man who was usually calm and cool headed.

“Owen!” Claire said sternly from where she now stood at her desk.

When he was close enough, she took his hand a pulled him out of the back door; feeling the anger seeping out of him and hoping that the noise from their conversation wouldn’t travel to far back into the office. “They sent another letter! Another one, didn’t they get it when we didn’t reply to the first one!” He seethed, showing her the papers in his hand.

“Keep your voice down please, the windows open and the babies are asleep” Claire schussed him with a stern hand. They had a make shift crèche in a corner of the office a baby gate, toys and books keeping the little ones entertained, theirs and other that worked for them, while they tried to get some work done. And on this day they had managed so miraculously to get all six children under the age of four to sleep at the same time.   

He followed her instructions, and calmed himself by heavy breaths through his nose, though it was easy to tell that he still wanted to yell. She took the letter from his hand and read it over. It was much like the first one except this time they focused heavily on getting the Grady’s to reconsider the offer. Owen was right InGen should have gotten the picture from their lack of reply the first time, but by the looks of things they were going to be persistent.

“I’ll send them an email telling them we’re not selling and to leave us alone” She assured Owen with an easy smile that she hoped would give him the slightest bit of comfort.

“Thank you. But if we get another letter I’m going to march into their office and make them listen” Owen told her gruffly.

“I don’t doubt that” Claire’s smirk growing across her lips.

He left her with a kiss and a thank you, his anger dissipating with the calm from her domineer rubbing off. But now Claire had to word an email to the people trying to swindle them out of their land without sounding to irate.

Lucky she had five years of training for that kind of thing.

**To Whom It May Concern,**

**The Grady’s of Elk and Oak Farmstead have no interest in selling their property, no matter how large the monetary offer. With all due respect we would like no more contact from you, your company or any of its employees.**

**Regards,**

**The Grady Family**

A response came back just five minutes after she had hit send. It was generic and impersonal like the email she had so skilfully crafted had just been completely disregarded or left unread.  

[---] 

Claire and Owen had perfected the art of divide and conquer, one night he cooked while she bathed the children and the next night it would swap. This night it was Owen’s turn to feed them up, with one out of the three meals he knew how to cook, which meant Claire was up to her elbows in bath bubbles. She wrestled the baby out of the bath and buttoned up Finnegan’s pyjama top with her spare hand, at the same time. The bathroom steamy and hot from the shower William had turned up to a temperature that was way too high, making her hair frizz at the ends.

“Mama do I do, conditioner first or shampoo?” Her oldest boy called out from under the heavy beats of water.

“Shampoo then conditioner”

“Thank you Mama” He whistled and the sound of the shower door banging shut rattled the glass frame.  
  
“You’re welcome chicken, three more minutes” Claire said with a grunt as she pulled herself off the ground and ushered Finn out of the room.

Dinner wasn’t too far away, two of them were clean and dressed, one washing his hair in the shower and the other wrapped in a towel clad to her chest, relaxing wasn’t too far away. She reminded herself with a kiss to Everly’s slippery cheek.  

“I wrote InGen an email, and got a response right away” Claire told Owen as she padded down the hallway to the change mat spread out on the lounge room floor.

He looked up from chopping the carrots with a raised brow, “Oh yeah what did it say?”

“Nothing special, but I don’t think they’re going to take much noticed of what I had to say” Claire went on, as she wrestled Everly onto the mat and strapped a diaper tightly onto the little girl.

Owen nodded and continued chopping at the row of veggies in front of him, “I’ll give Maggie a call tomorrow”

Claire nodded.

“Mama!”

Her favourite name rang out from down the hall and she looked up from fixing the last button on Everly’s bunny covered onesie, as she heard the little voice of Hugo travelling out from the bathroom down the hall “I forgot to take my undies off”

“How is that step forgotten so often?” Claire huffed shooting Owen a look of utter disbelief.

“…. he just had a bath too” Owen added so helpfully, chuckling under his breath from behind the kitchen counter.  

Claire got up with at least ten sighs escaping from her mouth Everly in her arms, “Can you take you’re baby” She breathed holding out to Owen the one year old, who’s dangling toes wiggled free in the air. Owen took her happily tucking her between his chest and his arm, and Claire waked off down the hall, muttering “Boy’s” underneath her breath.

[---]

Another week in and now their table tops were covered in papers, folders lay open across the floor, the paper bin was up turned and Claire was flustered. For a week Claire hadn’t been bothered about the location of the envelope that held the letter’s they had received from InGen. She knew where it was, on the desk in the cottage underneath the coffee mug she had been meaning to clear away for days. It hadn’t bothered her because she hadn’t been worried about it, not really, InGen could sent them letters but they were never going to sell and she had more pressing matters to deal with. But this morning another letter from the ever so irritating company sat amongst their bills and junk mail.

Owen did call Maggie like he said he would, after another letter turned up in the mail box. Maggie, Owens little sister lives in Chicago, she’s a lawyer, her second year out of grad school and now working in a firm in the dead centre of the city. Property law isn’t exactly her expertise she majored in criminal but she certainly knew a lot more about it than them. She couldn’t really offer them much advice, it being only letters that had been showing up so far, but the one thing she did say was; make sure to keep all forms of communication for evidence if needed.

And that’s what Claire was going to do.

“What are you doing?” Owen’s husky voice startled her from where she was chasing a loose piece of paper underneath the dinner table, so much so she jumped and hit her head on the underside of the thick oak table. “Are you right?” Owen breathed with a chuckle from his nose.

“I’m fine” She huffed climbing out from under the table. Her head was actually throbbing, but she was distracted enough by her task for it to dull the pain and not wanting to let on to her husband.

“What are you doing?” He asked again while helping her up on her feet.

“I’m looking for the first InGen letters” She breathed, rubbing her head at the spot that collided with the table

“You mean this?” He asked with a smirk as he slid a large yellow envelope from under the pages of a Kung-Fu-Panda colouring book.

“Yes that’s it!” She cheered, biting back her inner thoughts of “Typical” and snatched the envelope out of his hand.

“Don’t I get a thank you” He smiled with a dimple etching into his cheek.

“Thank you” She replied dryly, her eyes going into a full circle.

“No a proper thank you” His eyebrows raised while he tapped a finger to his lips. It would have taken a lot more time and a lot more effort to argue with him so with an even larger roll of her eyes she went up on her tip toes and kissed him hard on the lips. “How’s your head?” He asked gently, pulling her into his chest with his elbows resting on her shoulders and arms wrapped softly around her head.

“It will be better tonight when I’m relaxing in a warm bath with my book and a glass of wine and you’re putting the kids to bed”

“Is that so?” He whispered with a kiss just below her ear. She breathed out a ‘Yeah’ with her face pressed in the nape of his neck and she could feel his chin against her forehead as he gave a light nod, “I’m sure it will”

[---]

SEVEN YEARS, TEN MONTHS & TWENTY EIGHT DAYS EARLIER 

The graduating students had picked up their gowns and hats a week ago, Claire’s had been hanging on the door of her wardrobe ever since so she could see it front and centre every time she walked into the room. She loved every part of it, the gown, the hat, the scarf and particularly the badge that sat on the left lapel, noting her high academic achievements. It was a symbol of all of her hard work, something that she had to show for all of her sacrifices until she would have her degree right there in her hand.  

Today was the day, finally the day that she could officially say she was a Harvard graduate. Her family had flown in to see her walk across the stage, collect her certificate and shake hands with the Dean. She was nervous, the little butterflies in her stomach unable to settle as time on the clock ticked closer to ‘go time’. But perhaps what made those butterflies, flutter that little bit faster was thinking of the speech she had to give, standing up to speak in front of god knows how many people.  

Claire knew it off by heart. Her speech, that is. Wrote it the second she was given the task, it took her four attempts to get it right but now it was perfect, with a capital P. She’d already gone over it twice this morning, reciting the whole thing while in the shower and then again when she was making her bed. Now for the third time she was reciting the thousand or so words, you know just to be sure it was all in there. She blinked at herself from behind the bathroom mirror, smoothing out the non-existent creases on her gown as the words flowed out of her mouth. A golden silk scarf sat around her neck under the lapels of the black cloak popping against the shade of her face, the edges of her gown were sharp and her sleek black heels gave her the perfect edge. A smile crept across her face as she examined herself in the mirror, eyes running over every inch of gown, happy to present herself to the world. Just one more finishing touch, and she would be on her way. She reached out to the bathroom bench blindly looking for the small round pin that was to live on her left collar. Her hands fumbled along the cool bench sorting past the makeup and brushes that were spread messily across it.  

It wasn’t there. The badge. Not there!

That was the last place it had been, her mind could only conger that, no further thought of where she had placed it before then. Dashing back in her room, she was a cyclone. Throwing clothes and sheets into the air, draws pulled out to their furthest point as she rummaged through them., her desk to, the books and papers rampaged and half drunken cup of tea almost spilt. It was nowhere, it wasn’t in any draws or under any mess, nowhere. She was panting, flustered by her sudden rush and patting down her hair to make sure it had not curled and she thought ‘You don’t really need it Claire’. 

But no. That wasn’t true she did need it.

Her bedside table caught her eye, the draws of it still open and lamp on top a little wonky. The badge had been sitting on it’s top before. Several times actually. Her feet carried her the few steps over and her arms found the sides to pull the wooden table forward. It could have fallen behind there right?  

A puff of floating dust met her as she moved around the stand to look. There were a few coins, a piece of turned over paper, and the lipstick she had been looking for, for a month, a layer of dust bunny’s of course, but no badge. With a sigh she knelt down and picked up the dollar and seventy five cents worth of coins, inspected the inside of the lipstick and scrunched up the piece of paper, every intension to throw it in the bin.

But hang on. Was something written on it?  

Her eyes clocked the flash of dark text, brain processing it the moment after she scrunched the paper into a ball. Looking down at it in her hand, Claire noticed the paper still held it’s colour of pure white and compared to the other items hidden behind her night stand it had hardly any dust. By the looks of things, it hadn’t been there for very long. Curiosity made her hands move smoothly to unravel the crinkled paper, and there written in hand, it was him…

**Call me some time.**

**0903 8094 93**

**Owen Grady  
x  **   

Her grin could almost spilt her face in half. The phone number she had been pining for was now there in her hands.

A little embarrassingly, she had spent a lot of time thinking about the charming stranger that shared her bed for just one night, a lot more than she should have, actually. She had even spent a whole afternoon looking through pictures of law students in hopes of recognising him in the face of his sister. Claire knew she was a law student, first year, she didn’t know her name, first or last, but maybe she could simply tell by some shared features of the man Claire barely knew. Then even at the risk of looking like a stalker she could track her down, hopefully gain the number of ‘Cowboy Boots’ out it.

She didn’t need to that now.

It must have been the second that he was alone, when Claire splashed her face with water and left Cowboy Boots alone in her room. It was nearly worth it, no it was totally worth not currently knowing the where-abouts of her valedictorian pin.

Her phone buzzed loudly from the bathroom counter, giving her the slightest fright but reminded her that it was time. Her folks would be making their way up to her floor and just a few minutes later they would be heading off to the events hall and she would be lining up amongst the rest of the graduating students. The phone continued to scream out Claire’s irritating alarm, with her free hand she pushed her hair back behind her ear and took one last look at the note that she found by chance. With a smile still painted across her lips she folded the paper into a neat square and tucked her into her pocket for safe keeping (She could save it into her phone on the walk to the hall) When it was trucked down in the deep pocket, her hand retracted quickly feeling a sharp prick on her finger. A small spot of blood was on the tip of her finger when her eyes gazed down and then at further inspection down in that deep pocket was the badge. Right there with her all along.  

[---]

Sundays were always quiet at the farm, their employees were at home enjoying their days off and the heavy machinery stay dormant in the work shed. Their picnic rug was spread out by the veggie patch on the field of grass at the back of the cottage. They had a basket filled with freshly pressed juice, pastries, and meats and cheese’s, a picnic fit for a queen. It was warm but not blistering, a light breeze trickled through the trees with the distance sounds of their grazing cattle.

Claire’s back was cosy against Owens chest as they watched their children play in front of them, running around with bare chest nothing but small shorts, hats and gum boots on their bodies. Finnegan their second born son, is their quiet boy he’s shy and timid; a total Mama’s boy but he has a wild imagination. Right now he had his brothers and sister pretending to be pirates, using sticks as their swords as they plunder for missing treasure, Finn had even found one resembling a hook. They were hiding from an enemy ship, picking out the best spot to go undetected, Everly was trailing behind not knowing what was going on but just happy to be involved, while Finn barked out orders as the captain of their ship.

Nuka the stallion was housed in the paddock at the back of the cottage, just in front of where they sat now, so that Owen could keep an eye on him. Usually his time was spent running the perimeter of the fence ‘looking for weak points’ Owen would say, but he seemed to be interested in what the children were doing. He had started to the side, his head down eating grass but each moment that past he edged closer to the fence with his head up and eyes discretely locked onto the four small Grady’s.

“Look at Nuka” Owen whispered in Claire’s ear and nodded towards the fence.

“Mmmm” She hummed shading her eyes with her hand.

“He’s watching them”

Feeling a tap on her shoulder a sign to say he was getting up, Claire moved forward to sit up. She felt the strength of his frame leave from around hers as he got up, he stepped slowly grabbing an apple out of the basket as he went. “William” He gestured over to the tallest boy.

“Yes Daddy” Dropping his stick William ran over to his father.

Owen leaned down to whisper into Williams’s ear, something that couldn’t be heard from where Claire was sitting. The boy nodded enthusiastically then they both slowly stepped closer to the wooden fence. Owen stepped his leg through the gap in the second railing and followed through with the rest of his body, once he was completely through he gestured for his son to follow.

“Ah Owen! I’m not entirely comfortable with my baby going in there” Claire called out with a little panic, as William went to follow Owen.

William would do anything Owen told him too, he was the boys hero, the idol of the apple who hadn’t fallen far from the tree. He would follow him anywhere, even if it were directly into the line of fire.

Her son turned to her, “It’s fine Mama” William dropped his voice calmly and brought his finger to hover over his lips. “You have to whisper, okay”

Owen was smirking from inside the paddock, William followed and from then on Claire’s stomach was aching with nerves. They inched closer to Nuka, Owen hanging back slightly but was close enough to grab their son if anything went wrong. The stallion was watching out of the corner of his eye trying hard not to give Owen the satisfaction of acknowledgement.

With every step William took Claire’s heart fluttered. He knew horses, he was good with them, he was in a saddle before he could even walk. But he barely weighed as much as the animals single hoof, therefore as a mother, particularly that boys mother, it was extremely nerve wracking for her to watch.

The apple had somehow past from father to son without her noticing and sat on top of the seven year olds palm. Nuka seemed interested when he smelled the fruit through the filter of air. His nostrils where flaring and legs stepping warily closer. William stood his ground and within a few minutes Nuka was at arm’s length. The boy was smart and stayed still letting the animal call the shots. The horses nose ran all over the boys upper body, the strong breaths from the nostrils ruffled his messy hair. Nuka’s snout sniffed the length of his small arm, the are that still held out the apple and the horse was about to take the fruit when he was spooked by the roar of a car engine streaming up the dirt drive way.

Everything was fast after that, Nuka took off with the grass and dirt he had kicked up flying in the air. Owen had grabbed William around the waist and slung him quickly over the fence. The three younger children in the chaos had also been spooked all of them running to Claire, two with quick tears flowing.

“Are you okay?” Owen rushed when he himself was over the fence.

“Yeah” William breathed still looking on at the galloping horse. Owen pulled him in to a tight hug and kissed the top of his hair, when he looked at Claire with anger nearly bursting out of his veins.

Owen’s steps where heavy and fast as he walked William over to where she was comforting the other children “Get them inside” He told her firmly. He was angry but it wasn’t aimed at her so she didn’t mind his raised tone.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Owen yelled as he marched around the side of the cottage to find whoever had cause the loud noise. “My kid was almost hurt because of you”  

Claire had gotten the kids inside and quickly put on the television in hopes to distract them. With Finn and Hugo snuggling on Owens arm chair and Everly sitting on Williams lap and his hand whipping away her tears gently it only took one word of Ben Ten to have their full attention. Claire watched from the front windows, craning her neck to get a good view of whoever and whatever had caused the ruckus.   

It was a man, he was in his mid to late fifties, his salt and pepper hair was short slightly like a crew cut but his beard was thick. He had a rounded stomach; dressed in a Navy suit that was just a little too small for his frame and hadn’t been out of the cupboard for about twenty years (Claire would say). His sleek slimline yellow Farai didn’t fit at all to the surroundings of where it was parked. He looked as out of place as a giraffe but at the same time his arrogance could be felt even from where Claire was standing on the porch.

The man put his hands up as if he was trying to calm Owen who marched towards the stranger, fist already tight. “I’m sorry for my intrusion. I mean no harm” He said with a calm tone to his voice.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Owen snapped back, the man’s efforts in calming the situation futile.

“Vic Hoskins” The man said and extended his hand for Owen to shake, but the younger man didn’t accept it. “I work for InGen -”

“Oh for fuck sake!” Owen spat cutting Hoskins off.

“Now hang on Mr Grady hear me out” Vic continued and followed Owen as he went to walk away. 

Owen walked around the corner of the cottage with Hoskins following just a few paces behind and from where Owen stopped Claire could get a better view of them, “We’re not selling, no matter how much money you offer us”

Hoskins was still puffing out his chest like he owned the place and his voice only grew in it’s arrogance, “I understand Mr Grady, but I don’t think you understand what is happening here”

“What? What don’t I understand? My family has owned this land for five generations and we’re not giving it up” Owen grunted, throwing his hands in the air for effect.

Hoskins had a smirk on his face and he ran his tongue slowly across his bottom lip, which Claire could see made Owen’s fists twitch, “See that’s the thing Mr Grady when your great great Granddaddy bought this land there was a clause in the deed. A clause that states, ‘if the government or contractor of the government found this land unfit or damning to the well-being of the United States of America the government has the right to seize it’”

Owen’s face was contorted into what could only be described as extreme suspicion “What? What the hell are you saying?”

“I’m saying Mr Grady that it is still undetermined whether this land actually belongs to you or not”

“Get the hell of my property” Owen yelled and pointed his figure forcefully towards the properties gate.

Claire checked over the children quickly again, all of their eyes still glued to the television screen so she pushed the front door open and stepped out to the front deck. Both flicked their eyes towards her, but on briefly and then Mr Hoskins, was it? He put is hands up in what seemed like defeat.  

“Okay, Okay I’ll go now Mr Grady, but we are going to have to pick this conversation back up again sometime”

Owen’s fists were tight and his jaw was clenched. He had puffed out his chest to intimidate the other man but Hoskins seemed unfazed and too cocky for his own good. Claire was surprised Owen was able to control himself enough not to throw a punch. Hoskins walked back to his showy car, he nodded ‘Ma’am’ towards her as he walked past and his beading eyes locked with hers just for a moment.  

Then in a flash of electric yellow he sped off up the drive way just as fast as he had sped in.

“Did you hear all that? “Owen asked as he jumped up the few steps to the porch.

Yes she had, she heard all of it. She heard how they were trying to take their land from them, how they were going to use some backward and ancient technicality to bring an unwanted stress into their lives, she heard, more so felt how they weren’t going to stop coming at them no matter how many times they said no, she heard the confidence in his voice and all of it made her sick.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos are always welcome.


	3. Part 2.01

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you are having a wonderful and happy easter break. 
> 
> Here is Part Two. Well Part 2.01. I hope you enjoy it, it's nothing to hectic but it carry's on with their country life and fluffy stuff. I would also kind of like to know if anyone had already figured out a part of this next chapter before you read it (you'll know what I'm talking about once you have read it). Because I tried to make it easy to figure out but not completely obvious. Anyway......
> 
> I hope you enjoy.

**SEVEN YEARS, TEN MONTHS, TEN DAYS EARLIER**

It was hard to pack up your whole life in just two days, let alone when you were feeling completely and utterly awful. Claire had been unwell for days; nausea was plaguing her day and night, headaches and joint pain not far behind. It all started on the small trip she had taken after graduation, when she and some friends had taken off to celebrate the end of relentless study. A week at her friends’ family holiday home, beer, boats and bad dietary decisions for a whole seven days had swirled around her insides like a tumble dryer. She clutched at her stomach everyday there and since. She had a rest bite for a few days when it went away and Claire immediately put it down to a lengthy hangover and the residual side effects of lack of sleep. But then with just a few days of solace it was back with a vengeance and she could barely even look at food without having to run for the bathroom.     

Her plan was to ignore it, and hope that it would just go away. She didn’t have time for a doctors appointment, she didn’t have time to be sick, there for, she simply wouldn’t be! Mind over matter and all that. But when her big sister, Karen showed up ready to help her haul all that she had acquired over five years away back to Madison, her sister took one look at her and said ‘You’re sick baby sister’. But with her determination and stubbedness she let Karen in on the secret, you know, we’re ignoring it! There’s much more important things to do and so they cracked on packing and taping and stacking boxes and with a roll of the eye Karen accepted it.

Karen was a god send. She didn’t hesitate when Claire asked if she would fly in to Massachusetts and be her company for the seventeen-hour long road trip back home, in her rented out U-Haul. It had actually surprised Claire how quickly she had said yes, even after she made it very clear that it was going to be hard work, but Karen just chuckled and said that’s what big sisters do, though Claire had the sinking suspicion that it was all to have a few days break from her husband and two small children.    

By the second day in and ETD set for four o’clock the apartment was starting took look at least relatively empty. Claire’s room-mate had moved out a few days before which cleared out most of the apartment, but somehow Claire was still finding things she didn’t even know she had. There was still her closet to clear out and a final run over with the vacuum before they could say they were done, oh and they had to carry Claire’s couch down three flights of stairs. Which in reality shouldn’t take them that much longer, but now for the third time, Claire was interrupted with yet another bout of nausea.   

“Maybe we should take a break Claire Bear” Karen called out to Claire from the other side of the bathroom door.

Claire sighed heavily at her sister from behind the bathroom sink and took a moment to look at herself in the mirror. It was hard to deny the heavy bags under her eyes and the colour that had completely drained out of her face and the redness of her nose from the dust didn’t help much either, one thing was for sure is she looked awful. But the thing was she didn’t have a temperature, no signs of something severe, just the horrible pre-vomit feeling lingering every moment, and maybe a headache or two. It’s safe to say that Claire was starting to question her letting it pass theory, but she had absolutely no intention on telling Karen that.

Claire splashed her face with some water, one last time before walking back out amongst the piles of scattered boxes and the dust that was getting under her nose. “No” She said weakly, shaking her head, “We have to be on the road by four”

They left it at that Karen didn’t press her any further or force her to take a break and gingerly Claire went back to checking over the kitchen. They got through another fifteen minutes of packing, more boxes stacked by the front door and some windows washed before Claire was running to the bathroom again, this time no time close the door before emptying the remanence of her stomach into the toilet bowl.

“Oh god, I just want this to be over” Claire sighed through a raspy breath from where she now sat on the bathroom floor.

Karen came over and leant against the frame of the bathroom door, her arms were folded, shoulders resting low and her face was soft with a sprinkle of sympathetic twitching at her mouth. Claire had never seen Karen look at her like the way she was now, not once. Her teeth bit at her lower lip and eyes travelled wearily over her little sister. Karen, Claire’s whole life had always just said whatever it was she was thinking, no filter, just her raw thoughts. But now against the door frame Karen was looking at her like she wanted to say something but didn’t know how. She stared at her, heavily breaths from both filling the silence in the air, Claire’s head fell back against the wall and a hand ran through her hair when with another bite of her lip Karen finally spoke.

“Have you had sex lately?” Karen her voice blunter than Claire had expected.

Claire blinked, eye’s wide and locked to Karen’s face. The Dearing’s were weird, and particularly weird when it came to talking about that subject. It was very rarely mentioned, especially with Claire around, even though she was twenty-three years old and a full adult. She had believed a stalk actually did bring babies to your door until she was at least twelve years old. It may have been the age gap between herself and Karen, seven years difference and the fact Claire had always been the baby of the family even amongst her cousins, but it was a topic no one in their Irish decent catholic family knew how to breach without turning into a stuttering idiot or without flush cheeks. Everything else in the world she and her sister spoke about, she and her mother could speak about, but there was something in their makeup the riddle the conversations involving that topic with an untamed awkwardness. Collectively they weren’t prudes or anything, they just had a wide spread unspoken family agreement that they would keep conversations with the potential to be awkward to a minimum.

Which is why Claire had not expected that, out of Karen’s mouth at all.

“Ah why?” Claire stuttered.

“Your symptoms, suggest to me that you are pregnant” Karen explained with her face still a little contorted.

Claire’s head was shaking back and forth before she even stared to speak, “No!” She snapped, pulling herself off of the floor and pushed herself past her sister, “That’s not possible. There is no way I can be pregnant”

There was a possibility, there was definitely a possibility. She had had sex recently, well recently-ish just that one time, that one night. One night and with an absolute stranger no less. Parts of that night were hazy in her mind and the influence of alcohol didn’t help her recall much, but she did know for a fact that they were careful. Maybe that is why over the past week she hadn’t let her mind travel down that scary and somewhat treacherous path, how it whispered in her ear once or twice but she locked the gates and didn’t let it flow any further into her mind.    

“Okay well if it’s not a possibility, then it must just be a bad bug” Karen nodded, following Claire into the lounge room. They stood silent with Claire’s arms now folded and Karen studying Claire’s face, watching her as she nibbled on her bottom lip. “It is a possibility?”

Claire nodded with her face pointed towards the wall, “Yes, but we used protection”

“It’s not always a hundred percent affective” Karen breathed.

Claire was starting to feel like she could crawl out of her own skin, “No I can’t be pregnant, I just can’t”

“I’ve had two babies Claire and it started out a lot like this” Karen told her, switching her tone to be very big sisterly.

“No you don’t understand. I can’t - I don’t even -”, Claire’s feet carried her without even realising, back and forth along the lounge room floor. 

Claire paced and Karen watch for at least two minutes.

“I’m going to the pharmacy okay and we’ll see what happens from there” Karen said gently breaking the silence after several minutes.

“Okay” Claire nodded, her eyes still avoiding Karen’s.

For twenty minutes Claire sat on the hardwood floor, waiting for Karen’s return. She sniffled at the swirling dust and folded the last of her winter woollies into an unused suitcase, her head pounding with the prospect of what was just over the horizon. When the door clicked at Karen’s return Claire’s face snapped up, her eyes finding the small bag paper bag in her sisters’ hand right away. After offering Karen some money, which she didn’t take, Claire took herself nervously into the bathroom, rattling box in her hand, knowing full well that no matter what the outcome something in her life was going to be different when she came back out.

The bathroom seemed smaller than she remembered it to be, the white porcelain shinier and more sterile than the room she used to fix up her makeup and soak in the bath. The mirror glistened back her tired and puffy eyes, crinkling hair and baggy clothes, a site she couldn’t bare to see, and her body turned her away from it like a reflex and without any consent. She sat there for a while, just sat there on the uncomfortable toilet lid staring at the unopened packet in her hand.

It wasn’t until Karen knocked on the door that she even opened the box.

Another five minutes later Claire was still in the bathroom, the packet opened, slightly ripped even and sitting on the edge of the basin. She was too scared to look down at the plastic stick resting in the palms of her hands, not ready and unwilling to discover the outcome. The timer of her phone had been going off it had been for three minutes, it’s horrible repetitive bark bouncing off the walls around her and Karen wrapped her knuckles against the door every few seconds knocking at the door for Claire to call out but she stayed still and quiet. When her eyes opened she wouldn’t be the same person she was half an hour ago, she would be different, maybe not completely, maybe just someone who had to re-evaluate her sense of sensibility but either way she wanted to hold onto the version of herself that was just now, for a little bit longer.

“Claire I’m getting worried” Karen called out louder than she had done before.

Claire hands reached out to finally switch off the continuing alarm to silences and the only sound now was Karen moving on the creaky floor boards.

“I’m fine, I’m just going to stay in here a little bit longer” Claire called out shakily to appease her sister.

With a long and heavy breath and the inner conclusion that it was time, Claire cast her eyes down. And there it was. A mark, a little bit of ink that completely derailed every plan she had ever made for her future and terrified every inch of her. Positive. Claire knew, before she had looked down, Claire just knew. She had known inside herself, maybe even the smallest part of her had known for weeks. Claire remembered her mother telling her when she was as a small child and then as a teenager, she would say ‘I knew you were growing in there, I knew you were a girl and you were strong and fierce’ and when Claire asked how, her mother simply said ‘I just knew baby, when there’s another life inside you, you just know’ Those words always resinated with her, Claire didn’t even know why, maybe it was because even from a young age the thought of raising another human terrified her and not just in that cliché way depicted in movies but really truly terrified her. Maybe the way she spoke about her pregnancy made the prospect just a little less scary. One thing she knew now was her mother was right, she did just simply know and now that she had plunged into reality she didn’t know what to call what she was feeling, but she did know that it wasn’t terrified.  

It took another minute for her muscles to started working again and so she got up, test tucked into her back pocket.

Claire opened the door to an anxiously waiting Karen, “It’s positive”, Claire confessed and Karen’s eyes grew noticeably wider.  

They walked over to the couch in unison and sat down heavily, Karen pulled her into a hug and held her for what Claire thought was rather a dramatically long time, “Congratulations” She whispered into Claire’s ear, releasing their hug as she did so, “Is it Alex’s?” Karen asked softly.

Alex was Claire’s ex-boyfriend, they me at orientation week and Claire fell for him right away and fell hard. Alexander was driven and smart, they liked same movies and listened to the same music, he made her push herself harder but at the same time made her heart flutter. He was the first boy she had ever brought home, the first time she had truly loved a man that she wasn’t related too. But six months ago for reasons she still didn’t fully understand they parted ways. He went one direction and she went the other, and those days they would pass each other in the corridor made the sky seem a little bit greyer, but it only made her certain that it wasn’t meant to be.

“No it’s not Alex’s” Claire sighed.

“Oh okay” Karen said failing to hide the surprise that spread across her entire face. “Who then?”

“His name is Owen Grady. We had a one night stand before graduation”

“A one-night stand!?” Karen repeated with a sharp bark. Then there was silence for a moment until Karen repeated herself and then again for a third time. Claire nodded each time which only made Karen blink and throw in a couple of “You!?!”’s in between repeating herself.  

It seemed to finally sink in, that her baby sister, straight laced, never stepped out of line, never had an internet date, never talked to strangers Claire had had a one night stand with a man she had only known for three hours’ tops and Karen sat her eyes still wide but her mouth now shut. Claire couldn’t read her, she actually didn’t want to and so they sat both staring at different walls unsure of how to process the news.

“You have options, you know? If this isn’t what you want” Karen said sincerely and took Claire’s hand holding it tightly.

“…. I think it might be what I want” Claire said with barely a whisper.

It was her mothers’ words that Claire remembered and though she wasn’t as certain as what her mother may have been she did somehow feel as though everything was going to be okay that everything was going to work out. Her life was going to be turned upside down and chaotic and every other stereotypical concept that Claire had never thought she wouldn’t participate in but no matter how out of character the circumstances and unless nature saw otherwise Claire Dearing was going to be a mother.  

[---]

Apparently Vic Hoskins and some other up-tight corporate suites were staying at the Inn in town, at least that’s what Bobby had told them when he dropped of their mail a few days back, which included yet another InGen letter. Town was ripe with gossip, rumours had been passing around town, people whispering about what the big city folks wanted with the Grady’s’ farm. That was the problem with small towns, everyone knew everyone and everyone knew everyone’s business. The worst they had heard of all was that they were selling and their land was going to be turned into a new highway, with new truck stops and fast food restaurants lining the road. The thing that made it even more annoying was the fact that it was completely and utterly untrue.

In the four days since Hoskins’ uninvited visit, Claire and Owen had done nothing but research, pushing their internet connection to its limits just to try understand the babble that he had spat out at them. They tried for Maggie’s help a few times, but she was knee deep in a hard and taxing case so they let her be and tried to figure it out on their own. Owen had suggested that they look at the land deed that his great great grandfather had signed almost two hundred years ago which was a brilliant idea if they could in fact find it. Owen was sure it was in the cottage somewhere, he knew for sure that he wanted to get it framed and so there for it could be nowhere else, but after tearing the house apart he finally conceded to the fact that it was in fact not in the cottage.

They spent then another two day’s looking over every inch of the office block all while Owen was cursing the fact that he didn’t know the where-a-bouts of such an important piece of family history. But alas it was not there either. It was Claire’s father in-law, Michael Grady that had suggested to them over a cross-continental skype call that it may have ended up in a box and an attic of one of the many sheds spread across the property. A place Claire and Owen had dumped many boxes after finally making the cottage their own. But still the centuries old document was alluding them.

“Mommy!” Finn said with a dramatic huff. “How long are these boxes going to be everywhere?”, He pushed a box to the side to get to his gum boots.

The boxes, covered in dust and retrieved from varying attics now filling every spare space of their already crowed home.

“I hope it won’t be too much longer honey, Daddy and I are just looking for something” Claire sighed pushing a smaller box to the side to make space for the peanut butter and jelly that would be spread onto her children’s lunches.

“Aren’t you forgetting Mama? We have to feed the chickens” Finn told her matter of factly with his hands finding his hips.

“You’re right” Claire smiled, biting back a snicker and screwed the lid of peanut butter back on, that task could wait for ten more minutes. She snapped up the baby from the high chair beside her, as Hugo raced to fight Finn for the basket sitting by the door. Pulling a child by the arm to each of her sides the basket now in her grasp she scurried them out the door and into the early morning sun. The coop wasn’t far away, behind the cottage and to the left. The boys raced hurling themselves towards the feed barrel and crashing into it with giggles and a thud. Claire just sighed, certain now that there would now be dirt all over Finn’s school uniform.   

She could see Owen and William out in the paddock in front of them working with Nuka. A pre-school ritual that they had made for the past four days. They were able to get a saddle blanket and saddle on him now, not without a fight but none the less it was on him. Putting a halter or bridal on him was a whole other story, you were lucky to get away with all of your digits. Never the less every morning after they would wave the school bus off, Owen would turn to her and say ‘The boys a natural’.

The middle boys waited eagerly for Claire to help them each scoop a ramekin of seed, when it was in their grasp the wonder among the small swarm of hungry birds, spreading seed out with their little hands. She monitored the distribution of food with one eye permanently fixed on Everly who was pondering around on the grass and the boys squealed with giggles as they threw more seed, even though it was a task they did every day. Claire’s eyes gazed over the tops her wondering children and towards her husband and son in the back paddock. That’s when she noticed a slight glisten from the distant road. It was hard to tell from the mirage created by the heat but with a tighter squint of the eye, you could see a large black SUV parked at the property fence line. She hadn’t noticed it the first time she looked over to Owen and William, but after a second the sun caught on the rim of the wheel and gave it a shine that caught her eye. It didn’t seem too odd at first but after giving it a few more minutes the car still hadn’t moved on and so Claire started to get a little bit suspicious.

She was distracted enough while helping the boys collect the chickens’ eggs, but the car still hadn’t driven off even when their baskets where full. With Everly on her hip again and Finn helping Hugo count the eggs Claire strolled over to the edge of the paddock fence to wave her husband over. “Have you noticed that car?” She asked when he had joined her at the fence line and leant his weight into the wooden beam.

“Yeah, they’ve been there for about 20 minutes, I’m trying to ignore them” Owen sighed and followed her gaze out to the road that sat a mile away.

“They’re not going to leave us alone are they?”

It was clear who sat in the car even without any markings or distinctive features they knew that it was InGen. What they were doing out at that car they didn’t know, but whatever it was, it felt invasive and unnerving.

“Nope” Owen breathed heavily, lifting his hat he ruffled his hair then placed it back on just the same.

Owen sighed again with a puff of his chest, and chuckled at Everly on her mothers’ hip who was wiggling wildly, her mission to rid herself of the hat that sat on top of her head. Claire’s hand had been holding back the one year olds much smaller one since she had lifted her from the ground, but it only took her a second with her hand free and her parents looking to the fence and the hat was off her head, thrown into the paddock where Owen stood.

Owen laughed as he bent down to pick up the baby’s hat. “You have to keep your hat on your head little lady” He chuckled as he strapped the pink hat back on her tiny head.

“What are we going to do?” Claire asked with a defeated sigh.    

[---]

**SEVEN YEARS, TEN MONTHS & TWO DAYS EARLIER**

“What are you going to do?” Karen asked with a wary glance from the driver’s seat.

They had been on the road for a about an hour, and agreed that Karen would do most of the driving. Claire’s nausea had thankfully, been kept at bay and her stress level had somewhat calmed since the apartment was finally all packed up. So far it had been a pretty quiet journey, they’d had a brief conversation when they first pulled away from Claire’s old place where she made it very clear that their parents weren’t to know anything of the latest development and Karen though convinced otherwise promised she would keep her sisters secret safe.

It was a good question though, ‘what was she going to do?’ but it was one she couldn’t answer. Claire had no idea what she was going to do. Obviously she was going to have a baby and her plans would have to change to accommodate that, but work, housing, childcare, everything else that she needed a plan for, she was not ready to think about just yet. Then there was the whole paternity situation. She had his phone number and his last name. She had a way of contacting him, which was a good start, but this wasn’t the kind of conversation she wanted to have over the phone ‘Hey remember that one night stand you had six weeks ago, well you got me pregnant’ Yeah!, definitely not a phone conversation. Then there was the fact that he lived on a farm in Wyoming and she was moving back to Wisconsin. She did not have the time to fly to another state to tell a man she barley she was pregnant with his child.

Then there was the option of just not telling him. She had known the guy for a total of twelve hour and seven of those hours they had been asleep. He seemed nice and charming, he seemed liked a decent guy, but she had no way of knowing how he would react to the situation or what kind of father he would be. He may tell her he wanted nothing to do with her or the child and her efforts to reach out would have been completely pointless or it could be the opposite and he could want more involvement than she was willing to offer. Claire could do it on her own, she didn’t need him. But he did have a right to know and her child had a right to know their father, and that was just one of the many reasons why her mid had been spiralling for the past hour.

“I don’t know” Claire answered with a heavy breath.

Karen gave her a weak smile and rest her hand on Claire’s knee, the other thankfully tight on the wheel. It was the same look she had earlier, one that still puzzled Claire, it was sympathetic and remorseful and though Claire was sure it was meant to make her feel better it only made her feel as though her life spiralling out of control. She supposed she should get used to that look, as it would be sure to follow her for the next seven or so months, when her parent’s would eventually find out and then explained countless times to friends and extended family. But over the past twenty minutes Claire had come to the conclusion that they could all SHOVE IT! She was going to have a baby it wasn’t like she had just been diagnosed with cancer. Sure she was young, and sure she didn’t know the father very well (at all). But she was healthy, capable and well educated. She could do this, that was all that mattered. 

[---]

The satellite phone started to ring in Owens pocket, which caught them both by surprise, he jumped over the fence swiftly a skill Claire still hadn’t learnt to do and quite frankly but rather on the low key thought was very impressive. She called William to come in too, as Owen put the phone to his ear. He paced around her with the phone pressed to his ear and finger blocking his other, while William nagged at her to let him go back in with Nuka which didn’t help her as she tried to eavesdrop on her husbands’ conversation.

Claire tried every trick she had learnt to shush her children but their morning energy was too much to bottle and without becoming unnecessarily angry there was no way her ears could sneak a peek at the phone call. It didn’t really matter, Owen would tell her once he was off the phone, it was her impatience that was itching at her skin.

Thankfully, she only had to wait for another minute till Owen waltzed back over to where she now sat on the steps of the back porch, the phone now hung up and back in his pocket.   

“That was Dad, he thinks he knows where the deed is”

“Oh! Where?” Claire gasped from the edge of her seat.

“It’s in the deposited box in Casper” He explained.

Oh of course Claire.

The Grady’s had, had a safety deposited box in Casper for a hundred years. They kept important documents, cash, and all sorts of heirlooms safe behind the banks walls. Claire’s engagement ring it’s self had sat in that box for almost twenty years. She was absolutely kicking herself that she hadn’t thought of that before but at least now they knew the supposed location of that allusive document and their cottage could return to it’s usual messy (Owen prefers the term ‘Lived In’) state free from piled up boxes.

“I’ll drive down tomorrow” Claire told him, with a hopeful smile.

Owen raised his brow, “I can take the day and go with you”

Claire smiled and so did Owen. He caught Hugo and then Everly playfully stuffing one under each arm, full belly chuckles roaring out their mouths. Owen’s foot came up to tap the older boys on the backside and their laughter joined their brother and sisters as they tried to side step and out run their father. Owen played running and jumping, chasing the boys back towards the cottage as they ducked and weaved around him. Claire watched from the step with a permanent smile holding the egg baskets high and safe from bumbling children. At some point Hugo wiggled to the floor and raced with his brothers but Everly stayed bouncing happily on her fathers hip. Claire called them in after a few more minutes, the clock ticking closer to when the school bus would pull up at the front gate. With puffing chest and happy faces her boys skipped past jumping up the steps with one leap, Owen followed behind with the baby holding fistfuls of his shirt, his free hand slipped smoothly down Claire’s back and squeeze into the back pocket of her jeans pulling her close to him, he smiled with a glance towards the excited boys and kissed her cheek his breath still catching and warm on her skin.     

[---]

Mrs McClain was a long-time friend of the family, she lived a little outside of town in a small two storey cottage and she just so happen to make the nicest cakes and pastries in the entire state. She was a widow, loosing her love to cancer a few years back, she was also a mother to a son, Mitch who was a friend of Owens. He was a few years older than Owen but boy did they run amuck together. Mitch left town to join the Airforce when he was just nineteen leaving his parents with an empty nest and now with a husband no longer with her the town filled in those gaps and everyone who came for a cup of tea was family. With her son and grandchildren five states away she was ever so happy to steal away the little Grady’s a claim them as her surrogate grandchildren. Claire had said more times than once that she owed her sanity to the woman, if it weren’t for those small breaks from those small people that Mrs McClain so pleasantly offered she may have gone made.     

Her house was always so friendly the flowering garden overflowing the white picket fence and the gate always slung open for visitors to stop by. The level of excitement of the children in the back seat went up by a thousand even little Everly’s feet where swinging in her chair, when they pulled up to see Mrs McClain waiting on the front step, baking apron already strapped on. William and Finnegan whom had been dropped at school just moments earlier expressed many times how highly disappointed they were that they weren’t spending the day with the best baker in the whole world (as William put it). Claire always swore her children came back a few pounds heavier after spending the day with notorious treat giver, but she didn’t mind, they would run it off after one afternoon.

Claire’s head banged hard against the car while she wrestled to get the shoes he did not want on, onto Hugo’s feet. The boy had a sudden aversion to them, two days ago he put on his shoes with no fuss, one foot and then the other, but now putting them on meant fast tantrums and wailing limbs. She got one Thomas the Tank Engine sandal strapped, and with her stern eye and the threat of no sweet treats his second foot stilled and both shoes were now strapped tight. She brushed the hair out of her face with a huff and helped Hugo to the ground as Owen was already half way up the path.

“Thanks again Em” Owen smiled as he handed over the baby that he had easily gotten out of the car into Emma McClain’s welcoming arms.

“Anything for you my dear, you know I love these little munchkins” Emma sung with a bright smile and placed a wet sloppy kiss onto Everly’s forehead, the baby’s hair extra fiery against Emma’s greying blond.

Hugo zoomed around Owen as Claire moseyed up the path, “Are we going to make cookies today?” The little boy squeaked clinging his arms around Mrs McClain’s legs.

“How about cupcakes?” Emma smiled with a gleeful glint in her eye.

“Even better! Bye Mama” Hugo cheered with a squeak, climbing the few steps up to the front door with a brief glance back and a fleeting wave as he walked through to the house.

“Oh okay” Claire chuckled, quite surprised that there wasn’t a little more carryon.

They didn’t linger long, both parents happy to sneak away while their children were content and unfazed by their departure. The car welcomed them happily, the air inside cool from the air conditioning they had blasting on their drive into town. From the front step Mrs McClain still stood waving them a good bye, coaxing Everly to do the same, which cost her a tiny hand to the side of the face.

“Why do I always feel extremely replaceable, when we drop them off here?” Claire joked with a short laugh through her nose.  

“At least you got a good bye” Owen reminded her of his lack of goodbye from their son, with a chuckle he peeled the car away from the curb.

Casper was three and a half hours away, three with good traffic. There was good traffic, the roads smooth and following with no hiccups. Owen sang along to an old Conway Twitty album that Claire smirked at while she took advantage of the increasingly better phone service. Field after field went by, by the minute, Claire closed her eyes for to the gentle sounds of the engine, her husbands’ sturdy hands at the wheel and by some sort of miracle didn’t open them again until his hand ran over her cheek and his soft voice told her they had arrived.    

Though still somewhat dazed by her unexpected nap, they found the bank in the centre of town with shining letters above its door and heavy pillars holding its frame. It was busy inside with patrons nearly following out and down the steps. It took them twenty minutes of waiting to get to the counter, and then another ten to get through the elaborate ordeal of passing security to get to the deposited box. Two sets of ID, passwords, finger prints and a key needed to get past the first door.

Box 392 was six rows up and four boxes in. The key that hung on a string from the hat rack by their front door fit the lock and with a twist the small door locking the box away opened and Owen’s eager hands pulled out the Grady’s generational lock box. It seemed heavy and when the lid was open the box was filled with everything that Claire remembered from the last time they had she saw it open. But what she didn’t remember was sitting on the bottom hidden in a manila folder. Each of them reached in to carefully lift what was resting on top of what the folder they where after, they placed the heirlooms and trinkets on the steel table in the middle of the room and finally they could reach for the folder. Owen picked it up, resting a hand flat with it on top he opened it and by his gentle smile Claire knew they had found what they were looking for.     

“Is that it?” Claire asked just to clarify. He nodded with a sigh of relief, “Oh, thank god” She breathed.

Owen leaned down to peck her lips, warm and soft and only for a moment.

Relief was awash over them. Maybe not so much because finding the deed was an answer to their problem in anyway, but because they didn’t have to look for it anymore. Neither of them had any idea of what the deed would state across it’s some of twenty pages, or if it would even help them, but having it in their possession seemed surly better than to not.

[…]

The children were sent back to them with full belly’s and Tupper-wear container filled to the brim with baked treats. Which William and Finnegan were grateful to see as they still reeled in the unfairness that was the day. Yawn’s cycled through the car as they journeyed back to Elk and Oak and they reach the farm gates just as dusk was fading away into darkness. The days treasure was forgotten about while they did dinner and baths and bed and easier than most days the cottage became silent with just the tip-toes of adults and the content sighs of their eldest, who was allowed just a few days a week to stay up later than his siblings.        

The night grew cold with a sharp breeze biting the air and so Owen sat constructing a fire, while Claire slouched across the arm of the lounge reading the old document in her hand and William sat in front of her constructing the Lego set he had saved three months’ pocket money to buy. The deed was long and hard to read, hand written in a form that is lost in todays’ times, her glasses had to aid her follow along with the words. She glazed over most pages looking for certain words to jump out at her, but page after page it was pretty much the same. Her glasses slid further down her nose and her hand reached out to smooth her sons hair every few minutes as she read yet another two pages. Then finally at the turn of the next page she was sure she had found what she was looking for.   

“Here, here babe” Claire jolted to sit up straight and she read over what had found again, just to double check, while her husband took two strides over to sit by her side. Owen now by next to her followed her finger to read the passage for himself. Unfortunately Mr Hoskins was right about one thing, he had said that they would find a clause that state ‘if the government found this land unfit or damning to the well-being of the United States of America the government has the right to seize it’. Which they had just found, it was worded differently, with bigger words and some that didn’t apply in todays times, but there in black and white was the very thing they had hoped not to find. It was funny though as the clauses and amendments ran over another three pages with many other ridiculous things that Claire had noticed like, ‘the land owner has a right to protect hi property with explosives’ and how their government was sure not to have caught up with modern sensibilities and by some twist of fate this could possibly still stand.   

“Great, so what does that mean? They’re going to try and use this against us?”  

Claire shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, but surly a two-hundred-year-old document doesn’t mean anything now”

“People are still pretty into the Declaration of Independence” Owen sighed with his entire body and his elbow found his knee to rest on and his face fell into his open palm. Claire ran her hand slowly up his back and he turned his eye to her with a defeated smirk, “Do we have any tequila?”

William perked up from the mat in the middle of the lounge room floor, “What’s tequila?” He asked with a squeaky voice and a tilt of his head.

“It’s why you’re here” Claire smiled coyly, gazing towards her husband whom was biting back a chuckle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am about to get quite busy with work and general life so the next chapter maybe a little delayed. I hope people will still be interested though :)
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always welcome.
> 
> Thanks xx.


	4. Part 2.02

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so it's been a long time. But I'm back and this chapter picks up with Claire dealing with the fact that she is pregnant. We are officially at the half way mark. I really hope that you enjoy it :)

SEVEN YEARS, NINE MONTHS & TEN DAYS EARLIER

“I don’t know what it’s going to be like when you’re here, but I promise I’ll do my best” Claire whispered softly to the blurry black and white image in her hand.

A blurry black and white image that was now her most prized possession.

It had been a month since Claire moved back to Wisconsin, back into her childhood bedroom and once again under her parent’s roof. It was only temporary she told herself, just an in between while she set herself up. The fact that she had landed a job, a good job in her home town still rattled her brain a little bit, but if things worked out like her five-year plan, two years from now she’d be in New York and three years from there she’d be practically running any one of those fortune five-hundred companies, she didn’t care which one. Her five-year plan now, however needed quite a detailed reworking all to include the unexpected child that was brewing under her skin.

At least Karen had kept her promise and hadn’t yet let slip of that certain development in Claire’s life. There was once or twice where Claire had noticed her sisters mouth twitch and seen her swallow back some words, but she didn’t say a thing. The day after they arrived in Madison, car still half full and eyes heavy from the long drive, Karen took Claire by the hand and snuck her off to a doctors’ appointment made in secret. It wasn’t Claire’s usual GP which was a good call as Claire’s usual GP happened to be their mothers’ good friend, instead Karen had gone all Covert Operations and sussed out a doctor on the other side of town, drove there under a ruse with tinted out windows and everything.

They sat in the waiting room filled with coughing children and adults flicking through six-month-old magazines, Karen being one of them and Claire twiddled her thumbs nervously as she waited for her name to be called. When it finally was (twenty minutes after her appointment was scheduled for) she felt a flutter, just a little one from deep within her stomach. It took a moment for the doctors voice to filter through her thoughts and her big sister patting her knee gently with Karen softly confirming ‘That’s you’ until Claire’s feet carried her towards the observation room, alone at her own request.

Alone is how she wanted it to be. Her journey alone, and no one else’s to share.  

The physician was friendly, calm, everything you would have expected. She took a sample of Claire’s blood and whisked it off quickly to the lab just a door away, she took Claire’s blood pressure, checked the beat of her heart and flicked a flashlight back and forth across her eyes. Claire’s cheeks redden at certain questions the doctor asked and confessed her fears about the amount of alcohol she had consumed during her early weeks of pregnancy. There was no way she wanted to have caused her baby to grow two heads or something. The doctor gave her a light chuckle and a simple smile to put Claire’s fears to rest and walked her through the best prenatal care options all while Claire shuffled uncomfortably in her hair. They were interrupted ten minutes later by a knock at the door and a woman in a white coat passing a slip of paper into the doctors’ hand.   

The white slip was laid down on the desk, words facing the doctor but Claire could read it clearly upside down. There in print, right next to her name it said, Pregnant and there right there was when she felt the flutter again. It wasn’t a shock she knew that it would say for one hundred percent certainty that she was indeed pregnant. But there was something about seeing it in black and white that made her feel totally and completely like…. she should get her shit together.  

The doctor changed to a sonogram technician just minutes later and the goo spilled onto her stomach was cold, making a shiver run up her spine. It was awkward for a moment when the technician asked if she wanted to wait for the father to arrive but there must have been something in Claire’s eyes that told the woman to leave it alone and so she did. Claire had been floating in and out of reality, her mind in space for most of the seventy-two hours she had known she was pregnant but when the ultra sound moved across her stomach and her eyes caught a small blurry dot on the screen, no bigger than a peanut it brought her crashing back down to earth. It was early and only a tiny dot amongst thousands of jittering specks on the screen. You couldn’t see clear features or even pick it out right away, but it was there. A collection of cells some hers and some that she hoped would bring strength and sturdy shoulders but if not, at least the man who ‘donated’ them was attractive.

Her baby, growing right there under her skin. That picture of that screen, then became her everything and seemed to steal her gaze more than and screen or tactile person.

A knock at her door startled Claire and unwillingly pulled her eyes away from the image she usually kept hidden under her pillow. “Dinner’s half an hour away” Marcie Dearing, Claire’s mother called out from behind her closed bedroom door.

“Okay thank you” Claire answered back as her eyes watched the gap between the door and the floor for her mother’s shadow to move on.

Claire’s eyes’ stayed glued to the gap but the shadow didn’t move on, instead the door handle turned and with a creaky hinge it opened. Claire’s hands moved quickly shoving the picture back under her stack of pillows while at the same time she pulled her legs up towards her chest. She wasn’t yet showing, but ever since she had known about her little parcel she felt a certain need to hide her stomach. Marcie whom was bouncing into the room seemed to miss Claire’s quick stash but by the quirk of her mothers mouth Claire could tell she didn’t miss when the red head had tucked her hair behind her ear. Claire’s tell, a tick she couldn’t shake from childhood, a tick that told her mother right away she was uncomfortable.  

The older Dearing gave her a look, a motherly one that said ‘I’m worried about you’ but at the same time ‘I know there’s something that you’re not telling me’ and she finished her journey towards Claire’s queen sized bed and sat down. She slung an arm around one of Claire’s legs resting her chin on her daughters’ knee. “You’ve been awfully quiet since you’ve been home. I miss you”

Claire smiled, all be it weakly, “I’m sorry Mom, it’s just been a lot with moving and this new job”

Marcie nodded whispering ‘I know’, which actually quite tickled Claire’s knee.

Mother and daughter blink a few times, each raising and eyebrow for the other to continue the conversation. Thirty seconds, maybe a minute went by until the awkwardness got too much for Marcie, and she changed the mood with a pat to Claire’s thigh, “After dinner, why don’t we have some wine and watch trashy reality TV? I think Four Weddings is on”

“I was going to have an early night, actually”, Claire replied quickly and she added in a slight yawn, hoping that would sell her antisocial-ness a little further.  

“Well, you’re incredibly boring” Marcie sighed while pulling herself off the bed.  

“I know” Claire breathed.

Marcie stepped towards the door and glanced back for a last word, “If you change your mind you know where to find me … and the wine”  

It was a little hard to tell if her mother knew something was going on, if she was fishing for something or perhaps just being maternal, but whatever the answer Claire was nowhere near ready to tell her secret. She knew there was inevitably going to be questions, when her parents found out and then of course when the rest of the world started noticing the roundness of her stomach, but like all Claire’s philosophies on life she preferred to be prepared. Which required answering said questions for herself, which in turn required contacting a certain Wyoming gentleman, and so until then her mother was just going to have to remain suspicious.   

 “I know, thanks Mom”

Claire’s phone was sitting on the night stand, her battery in yellow and charger spilling out of the socket. Every morning her thumb would scroll through that phone, her contacts zooming up the screen until she landed on Owen ‘Cowboy Boots’ Grady. She added his number the day she found it. Added it twice actually and kept the piece of paper it was scribbled on, just in case. Every morning since she would stare at that number her thumb hovering over the green call button, but she could never press it and soon work would be caught in the in between and the morning would turn into afternoon, where her thumb would once again hover over that same button. Today was meant to be the day though a random date she had plucked out of nowhere as her deadline to call him. She had tried in the morning with no luck and then spent the rest of her day at work cursing herself for being such a coward. Over lunch, she had analysed that later afternoon was the best option, dinner wasn’t far away, an excuse to get off the phone quickly and he would be hopefully be finished wrangling cattle or whatever it was that he wrangled when the sun was going down.      

“Deep breath Claire you got this” She said to herself with an exhale of breath.

Her phone was in her hand, and she found his number instinctively, which ironically sat just under the name of her OBGYN. Her thumb hovered again over the call button and it lingered for a few beats of her heart until the voice in her head said ‘Oh come on’. She pressed it and the screen changed and she could hear the dial tone even though she hadn’t yet put it to her ear.

It rang without answer. Not for very long but enough to make her heart pump faster and it just kept ringing. The nervous energy exploding out of her force her to stand up and for some reason she decided to lock her bedroom door. She had a plan for if he didn’t answer, she’d leave a voice mail. If he didn’t call back in two days then she’d try again. Claire hated leaving voice mails though, she never knew what to say and suffered from that phone voice syndrome that seemed to be as universal as the common cold.

It kept ringing.

Eventually, just as she was giving up there was a crackle. A new sound filling her ears with a croaky and somewhat fuzzy sound of a mans voice.

“This is Owen”    

He sounded surprised, like he didn’t expect the phone number she had used to ever ring and so suddenly she was surprised too. He answered, actually answered, even though her voicemail voice was ready and at the waiting. He said ‘Hello’ again before she spoke and, “Hi it’s Claire” came out much chirpier than she had expected it to. Her introduction though was met with silence and not the instant recognition from just her name that she was hoping for. She bit her lip and waited a beat, but still nothing, “Ah from that bar at Harvard”

“Oh?” He said, that was followed quickly by “Oh Claire. How are you? It’s been a while”

“It has” She sighed gently as the butterflies jittered around her stomach, “Ah I’m good, I graduated and started a new job”

“Congratulations” Owen said with a certain sense of surprise still laced through his words.  “What can I do for you?”

What can I do for you? That stumped her. Totally and completely threw her for a loop. She expected to just ease into conversation, a bit of small talk to break the ice and then … well she hadn’t figured out the, and then part yet. Claire knew she didn’t want to tell him over the phone but the whole distance thing didn’t really help with that and she’d have to think quickly as he was waiting on the other end of the line.

“Claire?” His voice asked cautiously.

She panicked and breathed quickly “Yes I’m still here” Her breath was loud and echoing back into her ears through the speaker of her phone. “I’m ……. I just wanted to ask…”

“Yes?”

She paused, grabbing hold of the first thought that coherently spilled into her brain “You probably don’t remember but for my job uh, I gather statistics and I’ve got to put together an agricultural survey. It’s meant to help with supply and demand… that sort of thing and you’re the only farmer I know, well know of and I was hoping that I could ask you some questions” She was totally lying. One hundred percent fudging the truth and most of it came into her head just as she was saying it out loud.

“Yeah sure” He agreed, sounding a little taken-a-back if you asked Claire, though that was totally understandable. “Right now?”

Claire shook her head profusely even though the gesture was lost on him from miles away, “No it doesn’t have to be right now, it can be any time you’re free…. if you’re visiting your sister anytime soon we can always just meet up, that might be easier”

Claire gritted her teeth.   

“Oh I don’t have any plans to visit sorry. I’m more than happy to do it over the phone though” Owen answered quickly.

It was a long shot, finding a place to meet and luring him miles away without any context just to talk to her. Worth the question but Claire was conceding to the fact that she was going to have to tell him over the phone. Her brain rattled on with doubts and questions but thankfully Owen quite smoothly changed the conversation and soothed her into a little small talk. He asked her about her job and her graduation day and took time just to listen to her. He led the phone call avoiding questions of his own life instead asking her about the fake survey created in her mind only minutes before. She answered him the best she could, with zero facts and misplaced conviction but it seemed to keep him happy.

“Actually I’ll be in Chicago next month if that helps you” Owen said after cutting himself off mid-sentence.

Claire stumbled with a few words, fitting the possibility of seeing him in person back into her mind, in a place where it had just disappeared. “Chicago?” She questioned with a thoughtful pause that was followed with a rush of hope. “I’m going to be in Chicago next month”

“Oh really I’ll be there from the seventh to the tenth” He replied with the same surprise in his voice that she had heard when he first answered the phone.  

“No way I have a work thing in Chicago around then, it’s like a two-week conference” She explained, trying her best to copy the surprise in his voice.

His voice cracked a little, but he said, “Great, that worked out pretty well then”

“I promise I’m not stalking you” She had in with a bite of her lip which and in return she heard a breathy laugh from the other end of the phone.

She didn’t have a ‘work thing’ on at all. But Chicago was only two hours away, she could borrow her Dad’s car and getting a few days off work would be pretty easy. It was do able. Surprisingly do able. As of this moment her fears of telling a man over the phone that he was half responsible for the creation of a human life had been put to ease. But as she clung the phone still close to her ear she realised that those fears would be replaced with those of telling the man face to face.   

    [---]

Another week past across Wyoming, with the air warming after each day that past, the children sprouted like the fields of corn, two with a noticeable growth spurts and InGen’s presence continued to loom around the quaint streets of Cody. Although the letters continued to appear in their stream of mail, the ever pressing company hadn’t again stepped onto Elk and Oak’s soil without permission. That SUV they spotted at the top of the fence line appeared back a few times and Owen had seen it parked here and there while out tending to the cattle. They bit their tongue when the children were near by, hoping that the whispers of others would not infiltrate their innocent minds and create clouds of worry. Their age helped shield them from most unwelcome news, but mothers’ instinct could pick up the angst floating in the mind of her eldest son. It made her husbands’ jaw clench and the hairs on Claire’s arm stand but with all the self-control forged steady into their veins the Grady’s chose to turn their eye, ignoring InGens’ creeping presence in their lives.

Instead with the days that past Claire kept Elk and Oak flowing while the children attended primary school and learnt from the land and Owen spent his time focusing on the stallion that had proven his match. The warming weather and changing season kept Claire busy with their clients’ phone calls and auction scheduling keeping her anchored to her desk for almost ten hours a day. The day was only half way done and already if she stared for one more minute at the harvest sheet her eyes could quite possibly fall out of her head. The warmth and fresh air of outdoors was calling her name and she couldn’t resist it’s call. She would have been stupid to not take advantage as victor after a forty-five minute fight to get her littlest’s down for their mid-day nap and so with a two-way radio in her hand and the watchful eye of her office ladies ready to tend to the stirs of her sleeping children Claire wondered over a grassy field letting her eyes adjust to the unprotected rays and felt a tickle of breeze run through her loose hair. Her feet drew her towards the sound of clapping hooves against the hard soil just metres away and she stopped resting her arms on the wooden fence that created a circle around her husband and the wildness that was Nuka.      

Owen dipped his hat with a side smile his way of saying hello without words while the horse trotted uneasily around the fence line. His arms stretched wide and steps slow and powerful inched closer to Nuka whom seemed to react with a wash of calm running clearly over him. Claire watched as her husband brought the animal close, and as his hand ran so gently over the horses’ neck to right along his back, she watched in amazement as he tacked Nuka, tightening the saddle straps and fitting a bit into the horses’ mouth, an action that not too long ago would have gained you a violent kick. She could see just through his eyes Owen’s pride in how far they two had come which was soon reflected into hers.

“Do you want to help me with something?” Owen asked Claire, with his voice and movements still calm and eyes glued onto the animal. She nodded which he caught with the corner of his eye and bowed his head towards a post a few steps to her right. “Can you get that CD player and then stand back over there?”

She followed his instructions collecting the CD player from the ground and taking several steps back from the fence. Claire knew what he was doing, she’d seen it a thousand times. She’d press play at her husbands’ request and the varying sounds of machinery and honking horns would expose the animal to annoyances that could cause a reaction. When she was at a comfortable distance away Owen gave her a signal to start. A sound not to pleasant for human ears either, spilled from the speaker and Nuka reacted with uncomfortable jitters as Owen tried to calm him.       

They were undisturbed for another ten minutes until dust stirred up along their drive way and the cows in the fields lifted their heads at the disturbance of car engines. Three SUVs, black with shinning rims rolled closer towards the area stopping only when they noticed the man and wife standing agape. There were no big guess or intrigue needed as to whom it was, with out a word between them Claire and Owen both knew their day was now burdened with an uninvited visit from InGen.   

“What do they want now?” Owen grunted wiping the sweet from his forehead while nodding towards the cars.

All Claire could do was simply shrug her shoulders and roll her eyes.

Unsurprisingly Vic Hoskins along with three other plump men stepped out of the first car. “Mr Grady, you haven’t been answering our letters” He called out to Owen as he marched towards the cowboy, his rounded belly leading the way.  

“What do you want Hoskins?” Owen sighed folding his arms across his chest.

“We’re here to evaluate the property, which you would know if you hadn’t stuck your head in the sand” Hoskins replied smugly. “This young chap here is from the Department of Agriculture, he’s got all the paper work”

Hoskins clapped his hand heavily on the slim timed young man standing behind him. Claire was sure she could see the poor boys knees trembling. She could feel Owens breath heavy in the air as he stood closer to her and his hand rest securely on her back. Hoskins continued on his business gesturing for the young man to hand Owen over the notice which he did with a nervous skip keeping a far distance between himself and Hoskins. Owen took the slip of paper quite brashly which gave Claire the slightest twang of empathy in her heart for the young man but that was quickly shadowed by Owens grunt and the paper that he then slipped into her hands.     

She sighed heavily, looking into her husbands’ eyes, “Just let them”

There wasn’t much they could do. The papers were official. Signed by a judge and a department head.  

“Why do you need to evaluate the land if you’re trying to take it from us anyway?” Owen said with a tightened jaw.  

Hoskins laughed, just two short puffs but his large stomach bounced and he step closer to Owen, “Oh no Mr Grady, this is an environmental assessment, to see if this land is safe”

Owen scoffed, turning to walk away but he didn’t quite make it, “You know what, go ahead! There’s nothing wrong with my land, and you’re certainly not going to find anything!” 

[---]

The sweat and dirt ran off Claire’s skin as the heavy drops of water spilled from the shower head above and her hands ran smooth through her sleek wet hair. The tranquillity of fresh water lovingly soother her and suddenly her body jellied with a wave of exhaustion that had been building its power since the early afternoon. The rhythmic beat of water hitting the tiled floor almost lulling her too sleep she closed her eyes, enjoying the calm and quiet. They stayed closed for what must have been serval minutes, her body warm and steam billowing to the tops of the room when her back felt a cool wisp of air. The cool against her back was then filled with a knowing presences and a smooth hand ran across her stomach and she turned slowly finding herself in her husbands’ perfectly sculpted arms. 

“Hey” Claire breathed, her arms snaking to rest on the back of Owens neck. “You look tired” She whispered and her thumb ran smoothly over the stubble of his cheek.

“Mmmm” He moaned and dipped his head to rest in the crook of Claire’s neck. His head rest there gently knowing just much of his weight his wife could stand. “I was thinking about you today”

“What about me?” Claire chuckled lightly as she felt a kiss land against her jaw. Owen brought his head up from her shoulder and she could see a sudden change in tone ghost across his face.   

“About how much you’ve given up for me”

Claire’s heart fluttered and arms by instinct held tighter around his neck. “I haven’t given anything up for you”  

“Yes you have, I dragged you to this place away from all that you could have done in New York and all I had to offer was this rickety old farm” He pause to look her in the eyes and Claire could see the burden of this unnecessary guilt circling in his, “But I thought that was okay because this rickety old farm was security but now I’m starting to wonder whether or not it is”

The running water filled in the silence around them while their tormented eyes flicked around the others face.   

“First of all, you need to share the water, because I’m getting cold” Claire half chuckled, after realising her body had turned cold from her husbands’ much larger body hogging the flow of water. Owen gave a short laugh out of his nose wrapping his arms tight around her waist, while he slid her feet to stand on top of his.

Her body felt the relief of warmth again from both her husband and the water now running down her back. So she continued, with a gentle hand rested on his cheek, “Second, I was never dragged here, I made my own decisions, I had choices and I made the best ones for me. Because my happiness is here on this rickety old farm with you. You are the most beautiful, kind hearted man there has ever been, our family is more than anything I could have done in New York”

He smiled gratefully, kissing her lips with a tender pressure. “Sorry if my worry is being a bourdon”   

“It’s _our_ worry and this is all just scare tactic’s. This is our home, no one else’s and Hoskins is not going to be the person to take it from us”

Owen laughed with a brighter rumble. “He is the last person I want to think about right now”

His lips kissed every part of skin he could find and his stubble tickled her, reddening her cheeks and her chuckles bounces off the tiles around them. They swayed under and out of the water stream when their lips met locked together and neither letting go. Owens hands ran down her back squeezing gently and finding pause at her thigs. His muscles tensed pulling her feet from the ground and resting her on his hips. Pressed chest to chest, breaths matching the others he pushed them against the tiled wall. Skin slippery and burning red. And though the water was flowing around them it no longer mattered.

[---]

**SEVEN YEARS, EIGHT MONTHS & THIRTEEN DAYS EARLIER** 

The wash of water woke her to the coming day, before she may have wanted to but her looming drive was biting at her want to stay in bed. A month had gone by quickly, four weeks just falling away with nothing much to say for it. It gave Claire time to fully settle into her job and back into the rhythm of her home town. Apartment hunting wasn’t exactly going to plan but her parents weren’t about to kick her out, so it’s where she stayed and her eyes continued to stare at the teenaged posters of Johnathan Taylor Thomas that plastered her walls.

Her pregnancy had been easy over those weeks, that being a relative term and at fourteen weeks along she could notice the slightest changes starting to creep across her body. Her breasts had gone up a cup size, something that her mother had noticed but Claire played off as just a well fit bra. Her lower stomach had a slight curve to it, one that was only detectable sans clothes but easily hidden under a loose top or high wasted jeans. She could feel little movements flutter when she managed to relax for a minute or two and her hand would unexpectedly rest across her stomach without her even thinking about it. She had a sudden fondness for carrots, needing a supply close on hand at-all-times of the day and the smell of meat practically made her dry heave. It was getting harder to hide from her parents and even harder to come up with excuses as to why she wasn’t drinking any coffee or alcohol. It was also getting harder to remember why she wasn’t telling them. Logically her reason was; tell Owen first and figure out what that situation was so that she had the answers for that question. Which was a good reason. But every day she was living under their roof made her feel exceedingly guilty.

The Autumn air was crisp on the seventh with summer tossed aside and winter creeping in,  un-welcomed and much too early. Her woollen towel only giving her the slightest bit of relief from the bite in the air. She went into auto-piolet from there throwing on her pre-planned outfit and checking over her over-night bag one more time. Her father had been running his car for half an hour, his over protective eye checking the engine and the tires before her drive into the neighbouring state. Her mother made her right down the number of the hotel she was staying at and warned her a few times to be sensible at the ‘engagement party’ she was attending. A college friend that her parents didn’t know and were never going to meet and totally one-hundred percent not real. Claire could only smile as they fussed and waved her off at the front door.      

It was two o’clock by the time she reached the city her drive slowed by a road closure and then two thirty by the time she found her hotel. The many missed streets and turn offs reminding her a little too much of her unfamiliarity of the city. The room wasn’t much but it was all she needed for her two night stay.  After her bag was dropped off her shoulder and hotel bed tested for comfort her poetic optimism she told her to find a nice park and get a bite to eat, maybe read a book. But instead with just one step into the fresh air she retreated back to her room and flicked on whatever ridiculous day time television she landed on.

A text came through to her phone at 3:35pm. An hour and a half until the scheduled meeting time.

[Owen]: Looking forward to seeing you this afternoon. Is there anything you would like me to bring?

There was a part of her that felt bad about miss leading Owen to their quote/unquote coffee date. Of course, it wasn’t a date Owen still thought that she was going to ask him questions for a survey. A fake survey that she actually did a little research for last night. But at least she was selling it.   

[Claire]: Just you is fine.

She was there first, half an hour early to be exact. She’d picked out a small café that ran off the book shop next door. Claire had found it online amongst her research and noted pictures of people sitting around with lap tops and thought it would be the best place to continue with her ruse. When she first arrived she sat down in one of the oversized armchairs accompanying a much smaller by comparison table that made up the interior of the café. The chair swallowed her up as she sat there tapping her foot and eyes gazing by the second at her watch. She opened her for-show laptop not long after, but the web pages could only ever steal her focus for a minute or two and so the ticking hands of her grandmother watch ironically filled her time.

People watching came in handy as the eclectic humans of Chicago wondered past the shining windows of the cosy café she had now clamed as her own. Rich and poor, young and old stepped along the path pulling her in for the second they were in her gaze. The bell that alerted the cafe staff of a new customer became white noise as did the other patrons around her. That is why she missed the clunk of boots walking towards her.

“Claire?” A husky voice timidly asked from her side.

It was him. Owen ‘Cowboy Boots’ Grady. Broad shoulders and warm smile finished off with his scuffed and worked in boots. He was what she remembered, his eyes so intriguing with slightly more wear than before and a puffy darkness set beneath them.     

“Owen! Hi sorry” Claire gasped, adjusting to fully take him in.

She stood up making sure her sweater fell over her stomach, then it was him who made the first move, leaning in to give her a brief hug that allowed her to smell the scent of oak set deep into his clothes. They sat down together, the air nervous around them and they shared their travel tales to fill in the awkward gaps of when their eyes where flicking around the room. A waiter helped a few minutes later, asking them if they wanted to order something which both of them jumped on right away. Owen took his coffee black which surprised her for a moment, then he smiled and it’s gentleness stole her thoughts.

He tried to make conversation about the ‘survey’ while they waited for their drinks to come and he looked so relieved when they did arrive breaking the struggling conversation right in its infancy. Claire’s tea was hot, steam brisling from the top and condensation sliding down the outside of mug, she sipped it her eyes looking over the large cup finding his, that where green and just as big as hers. Her heart began to beat, fast, thumping a rhythm she hadn’t heard before and her truths picked the lock to their cage.      

She closed her eyes, and she swallowed deep, “Owen, I’m pregnant”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliff hanger ... a little bit... I know. Hopefully the next chapter won't be so far away. But it will be a least serval weeks. Cheer's, have a lovely, day, night or morning depending on where you are in the world :) 
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always welcome.


	5. Part 3.01

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is HALF WAY! So far this story has all been from Claire's perspective, so now we get to explore Owens point of view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so sorry for such a long delay. Life you know. But I hope this chapter is enjoyed. Happy reading.

**SEVEN YEARS, EIGHT MONTHS & THIRTEEN DAYS EARLIER**

Pregnant?

Owen blinked, his mouth drying as it fell agape.

Pregnant as in baby, pregnant?

Pregnant was a word Owen Grady did not need, want or desire in his life right at this moment or any moment in his close future as a matter of fact. His life was a rocky boat on a punishing ocean, waves crashing against it one after the other with a thundering punch as he tried to stay afloat. Not too long ago those same waters were smooth coasting him by with an easy current but now they thrashed angrily. It had started with his grandfather, a man that Owen had known as nothing less than Superman, was now fighting just to fill his lungs, the years of smoking catching up with him. There was drama of the heart in his life of late, confusing his fickle male mind and pulling his heart from left to right and around in a circle. Not to mention the flooding rains that washed away his crops leaving starving cattle in its wake and produce quoters they could not meet. Tractors were broken and fences needed mending, but money was tight.

His life was not stable, his lively hood hanging on by a thread and as of last night with the sign of his signature a family legacy was solely in his hands.

It was two months to the day that three generations of Grady men had last been all three together. His father calling him in from the fields to sit him down at the dining table. Owen felt like he was twelve all over again, his seniors staring at him from across the table with thick folded arms and a tooth pick between their teeth. It was there that it was decided Elk and Oak was to be his, skipping a generation so a two hundred year old legacy would land in the youngest mans hands. It was his now. All of it, and though the generation before would be there to pass on wisdom, keeping Elk and Oak alive was his responsibility.

There wasn’t spare piece of space in his brain to ad in the thought of potential fatherhood. His mind was beardly able a moment of peace with the weight of an entire family on his shoulders. The only thing that gave him solace was sleep. Sleep just to escape the stress and pent up anxiety that kept him chained and the hope for wonderful dreams. He’d be lying if he said that once or twice those dreams hadn’t been about that smart red head from a stolen night away. He could see her fiery hair and the way her lips curved into a smile. He could remember her laugh, the way her body curved and how she giggled when his hands ran softly over her lower stomach.

When the phone rang and her voice was on the other end, unexpected and timid he wished his life wasn’t so complicate, and that distance did not exist and that he could find a new friend in a kind girl who’s wit could go toe to toe with his. But never did he think he’d see her again, until coincidence and good timing brought them back together.

And there she sat just across from him looking so small, and her angelic face paled with unkempt terror.      

“You’re pregnant?” Owen stumbled, as the world stopped around them.

His heart started to beat faster than the speed of light and soon it was ringing in his ear, his body warmed quickly and sweat bead along his hair line. He didn’t really know where to start as his brain jumped around stringing together more trains of thought than he had track. His first instinct was to deny, it wasn’t his, this pregnancy wasn’t his responsibility, how could it be? They had only been together once and he remembered enough to know they used protection. But as he looked at Claire, and felt her body language, so timid like a mouse trapped in a corner with no way out, more than denial started to sweep into his consciousness.

“Yes” Claire nodded, in a small voice. Her teeth bit her bottom lip gently and her eyes fell to the ground. She breathed deeply letting a beat pass until she looked back up with worry still pooling in her blue orbs. “It’s yours, but I completely understand if you want me to get a paternity test”

Owen swallowed. “I believe you”

He did. He believed her with no other reason than a gut feeling. Maybe a wiser man would have questioned her further, a wiser man would have said yes to DNA conformation. But looking at her he couldn’t imagine why she would go to all the trouble of meeting him in a state that wasn’t her own if the baby wasn’t his. A baby that’s why she was here. His baby.   

She didn’t say anything but he noticed her eyes grow wider, and the tightness of her shoulders loosen ever so slightly. They had a moment just to pause and he could only image that her mind would be racing just as much as his was. A rolodex of emotion filtered from his head to his toes. Excitement right through to dreed.

His fingers rubbed on his warm mug and he cleared his throat “Ah- umm, when did you find out?” He asked as his mind tried to remember just how long it had been since that night.

“Two months ago, I’m ah - fourteen weeks” She told him, still biting her lip occasionally and he nodded taking a sip of his coffee.

“This is…. Umm this is a lot” He wanted to say something better. But with all the speeding information traffic running through his brain it was all that came out.      

“I know” She replied softly and a weak smile caught briefly at the side of her cheek. She swallowed deeply his eyes following her gentle movement and then she brought her eyes up to look at him completely in the eye for the first time. “I don’t expect anything from you, you don’t have to be involved at all, I just - you had the right to know”

Owen started running his hands along his thighs, rocking his chair the slightest inch and nodding his head with the rhythm. “I want to be…. involved I mean. This is….this is a lot to take in right now but I’m not going to run away”

Claire looked at him for a second, eyes wide and weary “Are you sure? Because I’m, giving you an out”

She blinked.

He swallowed deeply.

“I don’t need an out” Owen said through a dry mouth. He cleared his throat, darting his eyes around the room before he finished what he needed to say. He brought his eyes up to lock with hers “I’ll be there”

[---] 

Government Building was located in the centre of Cody, it was built in early settlement, sturdy and strong of sandstone and steel. Two pillars stood framing the heavy oak doors and a statue of a lasso wheelding cowboy told you where at the right place. Farmers and towns folk trudged the hallways seeking papers, marriage certificates, building permits and payed their debts and it’s also where Claire and Owen Grady sat waiting. Waiting for longer than half an hour as the council woman they had an appointment with kept them on a loose string.  

“Can you stop tapping please?” Owen asked sharply; his hand flying to his wife’s knee in hopes her leg would stop jigging.

The halls had been echoing with the sound of her heels tapping against the wooden floor boards. She didn’t get to wear her heels very often, Elk and Oak wasn’t really the place, but when given the chance her nude six inches or bright red Manolos would be dusted off and strapped onto her feet. But when irritation was added to her high heel clad feet monotonous and annoying tapping wasn’t far behind.

Claire sighed and stopped her foot mid tap “I don’t know why I even had to come to begin with”

Claire was the brainy one that is why.

“Because you know more about this stuff than I do” Owen huffed, folding his arms across his chest and sinking down a little further in his chair.

Claire flicked her hair behind her ear and puffed her chest exhaling a large breath. “I could be doing a million other things right now” She huffed back.

“Just because it’s -” Owen began to say but he cut himself off midsentence when the woman they were waiting for stopped in front of them. 

“Sorry to keep you waiting” She greeted them with a forced smile. “Should we head to my office?”

“Thank you for fitting us in today Rach” Owen nodded.  

He stood up offering a hand to his wife who got up not a second later. The three, two woman and the man walked across the hall and through to the office with the council woman’s name plaque on the door.  

Rach, Rachel was tall, maybe just an inch shorter than Owen. Her knee length pencil skirt showed off her long lean legs, pinned up by heels only half the length of Claire’s. Her sun stained blond hair was pulled into a pony tail and a fringe fell over her forehead. She was pretty in that girl next door way, with rosed cheeks and light blue eyes. She carried a thick folder under her arm with a sticker that looked to have been printed in the eighties and read Elk and Oak. She was prepared which was a good thing but her demeanour washed awkwardness over all three of them.  

Rachel closed the door behind them while Claire and Owen each took a seat on the visitors side of the council woman’s desk. She started off the meeting with the usual pleasantries, pushing through the tension that swallowed the room once the glass framed door was closed.   But much to his wife’s dismay Owen couldn’t help himself and brought the conversation to where they all wanted to be in under a minutes time.

“We just want to know if they can do this to us” Owen said leaning his arms onto Rachel’s desk.

Rachel laces her fingers together a pursed her lips with a breath out of her nose before she spoke, “Look, as much as you don’t want this to be happening… There’s nothing you can do. Because you sell livestock and produce the law is on their side. They have the right to make sure the land is safe”

“Our land is safe” Owen snapped without meaning to, and Claire reigned him in with just one glance.

Claire cleared her throat, bringing herself forward in the chair “We’ve had no problems like this before”

Rachel glance over to Claire for only a moment and then she turned them back to Owen, “As much as we all hate to admit it, the Government can be persuaded by people with large cheques”

[---]

**SEVEN YEARS, EIGHT MONTHS & FOURTEEN DAYS EARLIER**

Once Owens feet had carried him out the café, away from Claire and into his own thoughts, all he did was walk. For miles around the city, looping the few blocks he could navigate his way around and into a nearby park once or twice. It carried on into the night, until the sky had fallen dark and he found himself some dirty food and settled into a night of mindless television. He couldn’t even sit still afraid his mind would be left to wonder if he sat on the same cushion for too long. So he jumped from one end of the small hotel sofa to another watching whatever sports program he could find.

When it came to sleep. It took him a hours to find it and it wasn’t until the early hours that it finally took him away. Not for very long, mind you.

His eyes shut tight after the sound of his obnoxious alarm had snapped them open with a jolt. It was later than he usually woke, two hours later but it was still way, way too early. His head felt like cement and eyes weren’t ready to welcome the sun. He wasn’t used to late nights and his body rejected it with all of its might. He laid for a minute or two holding onto the warmth of the blanket and the pleasure of the plush mattress. But he needed to get up, he didn’t want to keep her waiting. He threw each leg over the side of the bed, both feeling heavier than a 400 pound calf and the rest of his body followed. He stumbled his way into the shower and let the water wash away a nights worth of nervous sweat.        

He put on the same clothes he had had on the day before and added about half a can of his musky deodorant. It wasn’t his fault winter had decided to show up months in advanced but maybe it was his fault for not checking the weather forecast before he left for Chicago.

He made his way out, down the elevator and into the crisp street, his heavy feet thumping along the side walk aching a little from the miles he had clocked the night before. It didn’t take him long to find the place he was looking for, just a few blocks over and the freshly mowed grass of Jackson Park was under his feet. She was sitting on a bench in the sun, the rays bouncing off her hair to make it the most joyfully colour of orange he could possibly see.

She smiled when she saw him and he couldn’t help but smile back.

“Thank you for doing this” Owen said with a tooth grin that had slight curve at the corner of his mouth. 

Claire stood, with the help of Owens hand. “You don’t have to thank me” She chuckled lightly, catching herself after just a second and ran her hand over the small swell of her stomach. “It meant so much to me, seeing the baby. You should have that too”

He hadn’t noticed yesterday, the swell of her stomach. The clothes she was wearing were baggy and covered her like a sack but today she was in tighter fit. Her light blue knit fit snug across her stomach and the skinny jeans she was wearing sat low extenuating the roundness to make it noticeable to the naked eye. His eyes were drawn to that bump, pull like a magnet and imagining the tiny person that was growing away in there. A tiny person that he was about to see on screen.

Claire had booked an appointment at a GP just a block away. It was her idea, she wanted to show him the baby, she wanted to him to hear it’s heart beat and her eyes lit up so bright when she spoke about her experience of seeing their baby for the first time. Their baby, that still sounded weird.

Owen was wear at first, thinking it was all to fast to soon but the more he thought about it the more he thought it was a good idea. He remembered going along with his father and step mother when he was fourteen to see his baby brother growing in his step mother’s womb. It was the early days of sonograms and the image was blurry and barley recognisable but hearing his brothers heart beating and seeing the outline of a foot melted his heart even as a big brother. He couldn’t imagine how it would change his heart as the father.  

He started to get excited as they walked towards the doctors office. Giddy in his stomach and nervous in his fingers and toes. Things still stirred around in his head, some of it things he wanted to know and some things he wanted to tell her.

“So what do your folks think of all this?” Owen asked her gently as they rounded the corner out of the park.

She paused for a second and bit at her lip, “Ah. They don’t know about it” She glanced at him with the corner of her eye, “I wanted to figure out what was happening with you first”

“They might notice when you have a baby in your arms” Owen joked with a light chuckle.

She giggled, a light blush reddening her teeth “I’ll tell them when I get back, besides my belly is going to enter a room before I do soon, I don’t think I’ll be able to hid it for much longer”

Owen was surprised she hadn’t told her parents, but tried to hide it. Her not telling her parents meant a few things to him, it told him she was scared, it told him that she may be ashamed, and she didn’t want them to ask about him. But he even though the situation was awkward, he understood.

Everything he wanted to say he was biting back. She had a way of looking at him, that made him want to spill his guts and with every step they took together what wasn’t said loomed heavy on his mind.

Step by, step Owen bit his tongue.

Until he saw the sign for the doctors’ office. He bit on his bottom lip and his hand could stop shaking in his pocket. He stopped her gently by the arm and she looked with those eyes, surprised by warm. He had to tell her.

He swallowed deeply.  

“Look I didn’t mention this yesterday… I’m.. Well I’m sort of engaged”

[---]

Owen knew that Rachel was right about the Government and their easy persuasion when a large cheque was placed in their hands but over the days since their meeting, it hadn’t sat well with him. Another caravan of ‘environmental’ analysts spent a few days on the far side of the farm, looking for something that Owen knew right down in his bones, was not existent. They wouldn’t tell them anything that they found, but said to watch for a detailed report in their mail box. They learnt to take it on the chin and even became quite chummy with some of the environmentalist but when Owen received a letter from the USDA (United State Department of Agriculture) suspending their organic status from ‘pure’ to ‘assessment pending’ the farmer all but flew off his hinges.

It changed after that, it became personal, even more so than before. It was effecting their lively hood, their produce, their profits and now Owen’s ability to provide for his family. Owen’s anger was bubbling, like a boiling pot about to spill over it’s edges. And Owen knew that even his wife was finding it hard to sooth and calm his growing temper.  

A town meeting had been called for the later in the evening. The mayor drawing on town elders and council people to clear up any question and qualms that the towns people had about the company that had taken up what seemed to be a permanent residence. The InGen employees had been a fixture at the local Inn. There was always four of them, most were interchangeable but Mr Hoskins was always around. Gossip ran ripe around the streets, each string of theories because more outrageous than the next. But whether because of loyalty to the Grady’s or just weary of outsiders the people of Cody hadn’t been overtly welcoming to the new comers.

“Whatever happens tonight, do NOT snap at Hoskins” Claire said firmly with her signature assertive stance; hands on her hips and chin pointedly up.

Owen poked his head from out of the open car door with a smirk showing his glowing teeth and small feet swung from their car seat by his chest.  

The night was cold even in throws of a new summer and her breath caught in the air with a puff of smoke. William stood beside her, with hands on his hips and cowboy hat tilted on his head even in the dead of night, mimicking his mother down to a tea. 

It was safe to say his better half had been worried about him snapping at the salt and pepper haired man, for quite some time. She had noticed the way his jaw clenched whenever Hoskins spoke and how his hands turned into fists when they brushed pass him in town.

“Don’t worry honey, I’ll behave myself” Owen chuckled, ruffling his youngest sons hair and adding a kiss to his cheek.

“Are you being naughty Daddy?” Hugo asked, with a sweet tilt to his head.

“Your Mommy thinks I’m going to be” He smiled back, while Claire rolled her eyes from the other side of the glass.

[…]

**SEVEN YEARS, EIGHT MONTHS & FOURTEEN DAYS EARLIER**

Claire’s eyes were as wide as the world. “Oh” She blurted out, with her eyes yet to blink.

“I wasn’t when we- but I am now” He to clear up quickly. It was easy to tell that being an unwilling participant in an affair would have devastated her, not to mention he wouldn’t want her to think that of him. “But it doesn’t change anything okay, I’ll always be there for the baby”

Her pace had slowed, steps nearly stopping as she stared up at him, eyes flicking around his face and her mouth flopped agape. She looked as if she was going to speak for a moment, but with a sudden deep breath she put her head down and walked forward her pace picking up to Olympic speed.

“Claire!” Owen called out when she had gotten five metres in front of him. His feet picked up as he followed. The passers by in the street where looking on as they walked by giving him suspicious looks as Claire kept going. “Claire” He called again this time picking up into a jog after her. “Wait, wait, wait” He stopped her genteelly with his hand on her shoulder. When she turned around there were a few tears falling from her eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell me that yesterday” She breathed through a loud sniffle.

Her face was crushing, but his sudden instinct was to panic, “It doesn’t mean anything okay” He gasped, his breath hitching at the panic running across his body. “I’m going to be there for the baby it doesn’t change anything. Please don’t cry”

“Yes it does!” She croaked “You had this whole life and I show up….. and what is your fiancé going to think?”       

“You don’t have to worry about that. That’s my problem” Owen burst starting to panic as he looked into her tearful eyes.

She wiped her cheek with the sleeve of her knit sweater and looked to the sign of the doctor’s office in front of them, “This is getting all too complicated, Owen. Maybe we should just part ways”  

[…] 

The night drew darker as they rolled into town, the low clouds heavy in the sky and rain looked to be looming over the valley. The ride was an easy one with the children drowsy from a long day at school and whispering to each other about the fun they will have with their friends in the hall ‘play room’. It was hard to find a park when they got into the town centre. Parking wasn’t so easy, with pickup trucks lining the street and every spare park filled, everyone ready and eager to hear what was going on in their county.

After a loop around main street, Owen gave up settling for parking up on a patch of grass just outside the hall. Which gained him a hearty eye roll from Claire in the passengers seat. You could feel moister in the air as they collected the children out of the car seats and tide loose shoe laces to the wriggling feet, but rain was yet to fall. Everly had fallen asleep on the ride over, her eyes closed gently and lashes fluttering sweetly in her dreams. Her beany fell lop sided as Claire lift her carful in her arms but thankfully the disturbance was not enough to wake her. Owen pecked her little cheek the site tugging at his heart that had grown to new levels since his little ladies birth.

Their boys bounced towards the hall, fighting the urge to race under the sharp eye of their father. The three didn’t blink an eye as their parent’s bid them farewell and left them in the care of a young school teacher in the hall ‘play room’, already filled with children and loud with playful giggles.

The main hall was full when they walked in. Some people had taken their seats but most were milling around and chatting in small groups. Owen clocked Hoskins right away. He was talking to Mayor McMillen with a few of his lackeys standing close by. He was making Owens hair stand on edge even from the distance. As he watched Hoskins touch her arm unnecessarily and didn’t let her get a word in edge wise.

Claire pulled him away, breaking his stare to find some seats. They sat three rows back from the stage a ‘safe distance’ as Claire said from the InGen people who were sat in the front row. The speaker of the house quieted everyone down after a few minutes and asked for them to find their seats for the meeting to commence. Which the towns people did accordingly.

Mayor McMillen took over from there, taking to the stage to welcome everybody. She started off with some house-keeping, reading off the dates to the counsel clean ups and the town fair and updated everyone on the high school football team’s latest scores. Then she went on to congratulating the few new parents that had welcomed children since the last town meeting. By fifteen minutes in the conversation turned. Swapping from light hearted banter too the real business.   

When InGen was mentioned, feet began to shuffle in their seats and a respectable amount of men began to fold their arms over their chests. Everyone wanted answers and everyone wanted them gone and as far as Owen could tell the negative energy only fed into Vic Hoskins ego. The tone of the room changed as the Mayor began to read the diplomatic speech she had written about why they were in town and Hoskins of course sat with a watchful eye and his chest puffed out like a silver back gorilla. Owen could tell with every word she spoke, she didn’t believe it.

“Be accommodating” she said and “Show them our spirit”, more like send them packing and be done with it he thought.

Some people from the crowd started to fire off questions. Driven by the fear of their farm being InGen’s next target. They started to get a little rowdy, one even stood up at his seat, firing his question directly at the InGen employees sitting in the front. Not a second later Hoskins himself jumped onto the stage.

“I can take it from here” The micro phone lightly picked up Hoskins whisper to Mayor McMillen.

She nodded with a sneer and roll of her eyes, leaving him the stage and microphone. Silence feel over the low hum of conversation in the room when as he cleared his throat loudly over the centre of the microphone. Arrogance radiating off him in waves.     

Owen’s eyes narrowed in on Hoskins, and watched as he unclipped the microphone and pushed the lectern to the side. Owens jaw locked, he folded his arms across his chest and now was focused on holding himself back from yelling out something at the top of his lungs, so much so he almost missed Claire’s whisper.

“Can you take her, my arms going dead” She whisper low.

He didn’t flinch and so she nudged him a few times with her elbow until he finally broke focus from the stage. Owen huffed nodding and they carefully transferred the sleeping baby, thankfully she didn’t wake. Everly opened her eyes for a second and adjusted herself to be comfortable in her father’s arms, but settled after only a few seconds.

Hoskins cleared his throat again, which made Owens eyes snap back up.  

 “I’d like to start by introducing myself, my name Vic Hoskins and I work for the company InGen” The salt and pepper man begun and Owen felt himself hold Everly closer to his chest. “My associated and I have been staying in your town now for a few months and you have been so welcoming, Milly and Joe from the Sweet Magnolia you have made our stay so memorable. Now InGen is looking to buy land in this beautiful part of America, and yes we have been interested in a few local properties but I ashore you that we have offered those families more than generous sums” Owen scoffed loudly when Hoskins muttered those words which gave him pause and Owen some unwanted attention. “Now I know you’re all wondering what we are going to be doing on the land, now I am not at liberty to share many details, but at InGen we are committed to progress, for a better America. Progress for the world” Hoskins stopped to wait for what he assumed would be a round of applause but he was only met with silence.

He picked himself back up with a nasally chuckle and heavy drops of rain stared to fall bouncing loudly off the tin roof above. The loud distraction didn’t keep the man from talking instead he instructed Jake the music teacher from the high school to turn up the microphones volume.  

“We want what’s best for you, all of you. We want to keep Cody thriving, hell we want to push Cody to new heights, with you” Hoskins continued turning on one heel to look at every side of the crowd. “And by no means do we mean you harm”   

Owens blood rushed to the top of his head and he shot up to his feet. His chair scrapped across the linoleum floor making those around him hair stand up.

“Mean us no harm?” Owen yelled angrily from deep in his lungs.

Owen had forgotten though of the sleeping child in his arms. Everly was jolted awake, tears streamed down her face and the wails proved her lungs to be fit. Her little face was red with tears staining her cheeks and her blue eyes where already starting puff. Owen felt more than guilty moving her down into her mother’s fast waiting hands.  

Hoskins wasn’t phased by Owen or the cries of his child. Vic Hoskins only licked at his bottom lips, smirking down at the other man from up on the metre high stage.

“Mr Grady, I thought you might have a bit to say” Hoskins huffed.

“What ….. wha?” Claire sitting beside him was still trying to sooth Everly, which was catching half of Owens attention. She began reaching around by his feet, rummaging for a hidden pacifier in the bag slumped over his right foot. Owen breathed deeply through his nose flicking his eyes back to the stage once Evie’s cries had been lulled. “What does that mean?” He grunted.

“You have quite the temper Mr Grady, I think it would serve us better if we took this outside, and talk just the two of us?”

Owen breathed a short laugh through his nose, lifting his chin up to clench his jaw. “Perfect!”

Hoskins was first to move, he walked down the steps of the stage with heavy boots and trudged gut first, up the middle of the chairs that where parted to make a walk way. Owen didn’t follow until he passed the third row and then behind him he walked with shoulders tall and muscles tense. Claire looked on from up on her feet, still in the row where he was just sitting. Her stern eyes were telling him to not do nothing rash and her teeth bit at her bottom lip which told him she was nervous.

The two man thumped to the end of the hall, the oldest one pushing the door open with a heavy click. The rain wasn’t as heavy as it was just moments ago but it was still persistent, just a light sprinkle and it was refreshing on Owen heated skin but it did nothing to dull his anger.

They came square on in the car park. With Hoskins out in front and Owens back to the Town Hall door. It didn’t take long, just seconds in fact, till the entire town had gotten up and followed them out of the hall to hover like herd up cattle under the tiny shade cover at the halls entrance.   

“Okay Grady let’s hear it” Hoskins grunted and he lumped his hands on his hips, pushing back his blazer to flap on his elbows.

Owen calmed his voice, “Why us? Why our farm?”

“Well Mr Grady truth be told your farm is the largest property in the region with the best access to a city and a hot headed cowboy like you is an easy target” Hoskins chuffed with a wobble in his belly.

Owens fists clenched, his whole body became stiff and his veins popped big and blue on his biceps.

“Owen!” Claire called out with a ridged voice from the front of the huddled crowd.

Owen looked behind him, his eyes meeting Claire’s to say sorry before he could out loud. Mayor McMillen was beside her, supporting her with a hand resting on Claire’s shoulder. In the break of noise Owen could hear Everly’s cries once again, from inside the hall where she must have been handed to a nearby family friend. Claire look back inside and back towards Owen, fighting the urge to run between both of them.

His self-control had been holding up so far, but depending on what came out of Hoskins mouth next, no matter how his heart pulled for his wife and daughter his temper couldn’t be tamed.

Hoskins gruffed a laugh, “Looking at your lady for permission, she’s got your balls so tightly in her grasp I’m surprised you can even walk. You know I bet she’s -”

Before Hoskins could finish whatever derogatory thing was going to say next Owens fist hit, strong and powerful against Hoskins jaws. Owen recoiled quickly, shaking his hand which stung from the impact. Hoskins wobbled on his fit until he hit the gravel hard and a spilt on his lip began to spill blood onto his chin.

“Don’t you ever talk about my wife, ever again” Owen roared from deep in throat.  

The crowd gasped loudly, and not afraid to be heard by the men in the parking lot.  

Hoskins started to pick himself off the ground, his feet rolling on the gravelled car park. One of his lackeys ran to his aid but he shook them off with and angry huff “You think you’re so high and mighty Grady” Hoskins spat.

Mayor McMillen burst between them, pushing Owen a step back. She adjusted herself to stand fiercely between the men. “I think it’s best you head back to your accommodation now Mr Hoskins” She stated with a very diplomatic voice.

Hoskins nodded with fierce eyes wiping the blood that had spilt on his chin with his left hand. His chest puffed out as he stepped around Owen, but the younger man had done a good job of knocking his ego down a few pegs. As Hoskins feet crunched under the rocks that grew looser towards the edge of the car park, his posse ran behind him and his eyes focused onto Claire’s “I bet you’re so proud to be married to a hot headed simpleton like him”

Claire’s eyes narrowed fiercely, with pursed lips “Hoskins you were asking for this to happen, you son of a bitch”  

[---]

Most of the town cleared off after the excitement died down. Majority of them giving Owen a pat on the back as they continued onto their cars. But a few stuck around with the Grady’s. The Mayor, Sheriff, Claire’s right hand at Elk and Oak Tess, her husband Mack and a few of their ranch hands stayed behind beers in hand to shake off the night. Something that they were all sure of now, the town had been rattled by InGen’s presence, no doubt.  

The children added screeches and background noise to the main hall where the adults sat

after their designated minders left for home. Thankfully the boys where distracted enough by the game of chase they had started with Tess’s two children too noticed that their father was nursing a bruised hand.

“Here you go” Claire huffed when she flopped a bag of frozen peas from the town halls kitchen down on Owens bruised hand.

“He had it coming babe” Owen said in his sweetest tone, when she took the seat across from him, shuffling Everly from her hip to sit on her lap.

Twenty minutes past quickly as the left overs sat nursing beers in the over wise empty hall. It started off with a serious conversation but got more and more entertaining as the minutes ticked by. The rain still fell heavily but the hall was filled with roars of laughter, that was until three children simultaneously burst into tears. Two of them belonging to Owen and Claire.

“It’s time to get these babies to bed” Claire sighed still laughing off one of Owens latest jokes, she stood up with a soothing hand on the back of Everly’s head.

The others in the room agreed, nodding their heads with yawns and tired eyes as they stood to pack away the leftover chairs. Owen stood, with a hand finding the small of Claire’s back.

“Sorry” He whispered into his wife’s’ ear with a gentle kiss to her cheek.

She looked up at him with her big blue eyes, “I know” She said, “Just go get him” She nodded to their youngest son whom had thrown himself on the floor with tears.

Owen lift the two year old easily into his arms and wiped his tears with a soft thumb when a crack of thunder rattled the walls of the old hall. All of them jumped, adults too and a flash of lightning lit the sky for only a quick ten seconds. The lights in the hall shut off  and they flickered, struggling to find their glow again. They flickered on and off teasing those in the room with just a second of light each time.

Another crack of thunder sound and a flash of light from outside revealed a figure that stood still at the open door.    

The adults in the room stood still with fear and children ran to their mothers’ arms. The struggling lights found their power again and flashed brightness back into the hall as all eyes stared towards the door.   

“Jesus, Rachel! You almost gave us a heart attack” The sheriff called out with a hand clasped to his chest.

It was Rachel who stood in the door an umbrella above her head and water proof jacket tied tight around her waste. She closed the umbrella, shaking off the rain drops she stepped into the hall. Her brow was furrowed as she looked to all of them, “I thought you’d like to know a convoy of InGen trucks has been spotted just out of town”   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudo's are always welcome. 
> 
> Let me know what you think :) Cheers.


	6. Part 3.02

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is very long. It's mainly all set up for what is to come which I hope will all pay off. This chapter has a lot of simple family moments that I cherish and I hope you really enjoy it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so sorry that it has taken me so long to update. I really hope that this long chapter makes up for it. I'd love to hear what you think.

**SEVEN YEARS, EIGHT MONTHS & TWELVE DAYS EARLIER**

Owen wished he had driven his truck to Chicago. If he had driven his truck he would have had at least an extra day or two to hide away from his reality, to escape into his own thoughts while he crossed several state lines and mindlessly listened to Kenny Chesney. It would have meant two more days where he didn’t have to say a word to his fiancé, and pretend that her life wasn’t also going to be completely upturned as well and to be quite honest, he hated flying. It wasn’t the flying perse, seeing as he had a pilot’s licence, it was the size of passenger air crafts. There is no way something thing that big and that heavy should be gliding through the sky.

From the moment the wheels of the 747 had left the ground Owen’s body tensed, shoulders tight, legs still and veins thick. It was too soon, he kept telling himself as patch work fields below zipped past his open window. It was too soon to be going back to his life and back to all the responsibility that entailed. It hadn’t even been a week since he found out he was to be a father, barely three days, and even then it was all still murky. He didn’t have any solid answers, he had no idea about what was going to happen in the coming months. He had no idea whether he would get see his child grow up or by circumstance only be a father a few days a year. The scary reality of separated parents (barely even together parents) cycled through his mind unhelped by the two unaccompanied minors his eyes caught from across the aisle.    

The only thing he had to hold onto of his soon to be baby was a grainy black and white image. From the second the photo was in his hands he hadn’t stopped staring at it, rubbing his thumb at it’s edge, so much so, the ink started to rub off. It had a couple of creases at its centre from when he had shoved it in his jean pocket and a blurry stain at the bottom right corner that he wasn’t embarrassed to say was from a tear, but even though it was crinkled and damaged that had become his most prized possession. Claire had said it would.

Claire, the further away from Chicago Owen got the more he thought about her and the more he thought about her the more he wished he had said… more. They hadn’t made any plans, nothing other than to stay in touch. In less than five months the baby would be there with them in the flesh demanding there be solutions and compromises to everything that had been unsaid. Where was the baby going to live? How often could Owen visit? What were they going to name them? Who’s last name would the baby have? All these things floating up in the air without a string to hold them down to gravity.

Owens head shook against the planes wall and jolted him out of his distracted world and back into the reality that he was living. He checked out the window noting the runway just metres below them, by the corner of his eye caught he saw the seatbelt light had been turned on and no cabin crew was walking through the aisle. His daze had really taken him in, distracting him so deeply that he had missed all of the overhead landing announcements.  

They touched down not a minute later, the wheels bumping the ground hard after four and a half hours in the sky. Most of it’s passengers shot up to their feet the minute they hit the ground, clambering for their bags without a care for who was beside them. Owen decided to wait till the stampeded had ended. He sat still in his chair eyes wondering around his surroundings for the final time while he suppressed the impatience that was bubbling up in his belly.

The only other people on the plane that were still sitting were the two unaccompanied children that Owen had noticed across from him earlier. The youngest of them would have been five at the most, his little legs dangling while his hand held tightly onto his older sister in the seat beside him, maybe only ten. Owen watched them keeping his eyes flicking as to not look like a creep. The little boy looked weary, scared but pushing it down to put on a brave face. His sister was sweet clearly not a new comer to the business of flying alone, she consoled him keeping an arm tight around his shoulder and the older locked together with his. It was then Owen suddenly had a thought, one he had never had before and then in his eyes the children started to resemble him.

That could be his child. In not too far a future a child of his could be flying alone across the country just to bounce between parents with an unstable home and two separate bedrooms. Owen’s jaw clenched fight hard against something that he couldn’t shake.

“Thank you for waiting Sir” The preppy voice of a flight attendant startled him.

He jumped slightly up in his seat. “Oh yes, thank you” He said clearing his throat.

His bag was heavier than he remembered it being once slunk over his shoulder and his legs needed a little waking after being sat for almost five hours. He exited the plane with a friendly nod of thanks to the rest of the crew and the corridor down to the terminal was long seemingly a mile as he walked and walked passing window after window and then after what must had been miles until he was spat out into the arrivals bay with a glary glow biting his eyes as the sun shone against the glass panes.    

Blinking his eyes adjusted and he was stopped blank by the gathering crowd in front of him. Families to old college friends clogged up the pathway collecting their loved ones with wide arms and happy chatter. Owen scanned over them looking for his own but those he couldn’t see until his ears perked to a familiar sound.

“BABY!!” Sung out loudly from the back of the gathering.

He turned just slightly facing his body towards the flow of sound and that’s when his eyes found her. His fiancé. She pushed through huddled mass, blond hair bouncing just blow her shoulders as she brushed her way past the oversized bags and playing children.

She stopped just metres from him and a smile grew wide across her cheeks, his too. There was a beat. Her feet picked up fast and like a flash she threw herself towards him, colliding with his shoulder first to propel herself higher up his chest.    

“Oh…” Owen huffed, catching his fiancés weight heavy on his knees “Hello”

She settled down into his arms, and whispered gleefully into his ear, “I missed you”

[---]

Sleep was fleeting after the long drive home from town hall as those who knew about the incoming InGen trucks even with tired eyes pondered as to what it could possibly mean for the town of Cody. Owen tossed and turned, shaking the king-sized mattress, making it squeak as he kicked the blankets down to his feet and Claire cursed at him while shivering from the nights’ breeze. He huffed, breathing heavily out of his nose, closing his eyes tight to hide from his thoughts, only to open them again merely seconds later. The night was quite as it always was, the only sound (not caused by Owen) was the hum of wind running over the fields of crops and traveling in through their open widows.

Owen had to move again, his shoulder uncomfortable under his weight. The bed squeaked as he shifted and this time it was echoed by the hinge of the bed room door. The door swung open playing with shadows in the faint and dwindling light.  

“Mommy, can I sleep in your bed?” It was Finnegan’s voice. Croaky from sleep but timid and gentle.

Hearing this Owen propped himself up by his elbows shaking the bed once again, he heard Claire sigh loudly from beside him. With his eyes fully adjusted to the dark of the night, he could make out the outline of his boy, ruffled hair and plush dog stuffed tight under his arm, he pad closer to the end of their bed. Claire again beside him mumbled something incoherent from her face buried into the pillow and she pushed herself closer to the centre of the mattress while pulling back the blanket to let the small boy in.

The whites of Finn’s teeth showed a smile as he ran with a tip toe to Claire’s side of the bed.  

“Here bud, take my side, Daddy will sleep in your bed” Owen’s voice cracked in a loud whisper and he caught the boy with a strong arm from across the bed.

He lifted Finn’s small body over his wife with one arm while simultaneously finding his footing on the hard wood floor. Finnegan was warm, cosy from the holds of his thick quilt and Owen laid him down softly, resting his strawberry blond hair down on the pillow. Claire turned slowly to Owen’s side of the bed, tucking one hand under her cheek and the other to rest softly on their five year old stomach. A small smile caught on the side of Owens mouth as he watched them both slip easily back into sleep.

Owen left a gentle kiss on each of their foreheads as he tip toed his way out of the room. The hall was darker than his room and so he trod carefully down its length, hoping not to let his heavy foot catch on one of the squeaky floor boards. One miss step made him grit his teeth after kicking his toe on the siding, swearing in an angry whisper under his breath. With a pause to ease his throbbing toe he stopped at each of the children’s rooms peeking in to make sure they were undisturbed. Satisfied he continued to Finnegan’s room keeping his feet light and arms tight towards his body, making sure not to hit anything else.

A night light glowed from the corner of the room laminating it with a dull blue. Owen caught a laugh in his throat at sleeping Hugo in the bed tucked in the corner of the other side of the room. The little boys mop of blond hair faced to the opposite end to his pillows, his legs tucked under his chest and bottom resting on his folded legs to stick up in the air.  

With gentle hands Owen lift his son, laying him the right way up and tucked the blankets in around his small shoulders. Hugo responded with only a sleepy flutter where Owen dropped a kiss to his cheek. A yawn finally escaped Owens lips and his eye lids began to fall heavily, so he trod the few steps over to the toddler size bed on the other side of the room flopping down with each of his limbs falling over an edge.    

[---]

**SEVEN YEARS, EIGHT MONTHS & TWELVE DAYS EARLIER**

She drove the few hours home letting Owen sit on the bouncy side of the car while she navigated the country roads and a dreariness brought on by travel caught up with him. They talked a little while on the road but not a lot and by the time they got home Owen could tell her eyes were growing suspicious at his silence.

The musky air of his cottage home breathed in through his nose gave him centre while his mind still swirled with the unknown of his future. His fiancé seemed to ignore his sombre mood, though it was clear to him that she could sense something was off but instead it was left to fester in each of their individual thoughts. He unpacked alone while she cooked them dinner giving him the perfect chance to hide the scan of his growing child, safe in a tin slid under his side of the bed.

Soon the easy smell of steak and two veg drew him out into the kitchen now hungry without even knowing it. He eased his hand to rest on her lower back and kissed between her ear and neck thanking her gently for the meal. Instinctively they found their designated spots at the dinner table where she led the conversation leaving room for him to throw in a ‘yeah’ and grunt between mouthfuls of food.

Her voice was so gentle and over looking of his flaws but his troubles still had a hold of him, keeping him distant and out of reach. He didn’t even turn a head when she cleared away his plate but its emphasized crash into the sink did peek in his ears. He whispered a thankyou that was caught only by her ears when she pushed away the hand resting on his knee to make way for her leg then thigh and soon her whole weight was shared between his slightly parted knees.           

Instinctively his hands went to her back and she kissed his nose and then mouth letting her lips trail down his neck with her hot breath making the hairs on his arm stand up. Her hand ran down his chest squeezing as they travelled over his pecks. He closed his eyes’ resting his neck on the chairs back as her arm snaked around his waist, to find his heavy belt buckle at his centre. With one hand she began to take it off him, he felt his hips free of its tight hold while she pulled it from the loops and her hand ran slowly back along his lower stomach. She paused for a moment kissing beneath his chin and then his jaw before she popped open the top button of his jeans forcing Owen’s eyes to snap open as her hands creeped lower into his jeans.      

“Stop” He grunted, moving a hand fast to stop hers. She looked up with a slight gasp, ‘What?’ slipping out of her mouth before she captured his mouth again with a tongue fighting its way in between his teeth. He pushed her back gently, pulling her hand away from the top of his briefs. “Rachel, stop!”

Confusion boiling in her eyes she pushed herself further back from him, “What is wrong with you Owen?”

He let out the breath he was holding and shut his eyes opening them with a pained expression only seconds later, “Nothing, I just” He pause with another breath “I need to talk to you about something”  

“Fine, talk” Rachel huffed, getting up disgruntledly from Owens lap as she folded her arms across her chest.

Owen rubbed at his temple, standing up to fix his pants and thread his belt back through its loops. His eyes darted across the floor just to avoid meeting hers and his hand rubbed uncomfortably at the back of his neck.  

“Umm… I don’t really know where to start with this” He began weary of his words, “When we were broken up….”

“Yes” She acknowledged quickly.

His voice became uneasy, “I spent a night with this girl”

“I know, you told me” Rachel said looking to the ground before she could bring her eyes to him.

He looked to Rachel in the eye his face soft and sorry for what was about to leave his lips, “Well, she… that girl is pregnant, with umm… with ah my baby”

She was still suddenly her legs straight rather than shifting weight and shoulders frozen, arms tight across her chest. Disbelief pulling across her face she softly spoke, “You’re serious?”

[---]

Owen woke with a jolt. Little knee’s crashing onto his chest and a hand hitting repeatedly at his cheek. He huffed, body jumping at the impacted and his eyes unwillingly peeled open but just a fracture.

“Daddy wake up” Burst loud into his ear, the voice he couldn’t yet determine which one of his children it belonged to.

Owen shook himself awake as little fingers from two sets of hands pushed and pulled at his cheeks and nose and forehead. He blinked rapidly washing away the morning haze and lifted his head off the child size pillow to find Hugo, his youngest boy just an inch from his nose.

“It’s morning Dada” Hugo’s squeaky voice alerted him 10 decibels to loud.

“Yep alright buddy”, Owen grumbled and with heavy muscles he found the little boy’s hair to ruffle.

He pushed Hugo’s knees from digging into his chest to each now dangle over his torso and with a huff Owen’s head fell heavily back onto the pillow. His eyes closed again every part of his body telling him he wasn’t yet ready for the day. Then with just a seconds’ peace he felt a small hand hitting at his cheek over again. He flicked open his left eye leaving the right closed and he was met with a cheeky giggle.

“Not you too” Owen half chuckled.

Baby Everly grinned with a half gummy smile, face to face with him while she was pulling herself up on her tippy toes. With his one hand he scooped her up, her little bottom fitting slight in his palm he pulled her to sit between his chest and the beds edge with a thick arm blocking her from a fall. The three of them chuckled as though they were in a club of their own, giggling while Owen tickled each of their soft tummy’s gently.   

“Get up!” Claire screeched suddenly half visible to those in the room, “William I am not telling you again. Put on your school shoes!!” She turned, yelling at the child who must have been down the hall.

With a loud huff, her hands holding onto what must have been Everly’s clothes for the day whipping around making a ‘wooshing’ sound that cracked through the air as her arms flailed. She turned on a dime to fully face them in the kids room and stomped abruptly towards the toddler bed.

“Good morning Darling” Owen smiled through his still croaky voice.

Lifting his head up he puckered his lips to receive a kiss but instead by her palm his head was push down with a rough bounce back onto the pillow.

“Can you get up! It’s eight o’clock!” Claire said brashly, catching Everly whom was trying to duck and shoved a tee-shirt over the tiny girls’ head.

“Oh shit really?” Owen gasped surprised at the morning hour, he pushed himself up by both palms.

Claire’s tone hadn’t gotten any calmer, “Yes! Get up you have to get the boys to school”

Owen helped her thread Everly’s arms through the sleaves of the baby’s yellow shirt before she hurried both of their smallest children back into the living room. He followed shortly behind, his legs still new to the day he stumbled as he made his way into the overwhelming brightness of the living room only to be immediately crashed into by a huffing seven year old. 

William bounced off him shoulders high in anger and face contorted “I am wearing my boots” He proclaimed with a stomp of his foot.

Claire flicked her head up from where she was bent over stuffing Everly’s wiggling legs into a pair of tights and the wails of their second child whom was whinging over the breakfast in front of him brought more redness to her face.

“Put you’re runners on William, you have sport today and you are not playing soccer in your work boots” She snapped finding Owen’s eyes just seconds later as if to say he was responsible. “Quickly before I start taking things away”

Owen looked to William with a stern eye who had already thrown himself on the ground to rip his battered leather boots roughly off his feet throwing them across the floor with audible grunts.

“Watch it” Owen snapped down to his son who’s eyes shot back at him fiercely.

Owen cast his eyes back towards Claire his face now soft as if to say ‘We’ve got this’ and he expected in return the same but instead she flailed her arms in the air and raised her voice directing it towards him.

“GET DRESSED!”

Owen’s knee’s jolted with shock and he nodded quickly turning to run down the hall, finding whatever clothes he could reach the fastest. 

[---]

Owen and his two oldest sons made their way towards his truck, their heads down and feet scrapping heavy against the dirt making dust swirl around their ankles. They waved good bye to their wife and mother sheepishly from the moving car whom stood with the youngest of their brewed at the cottage gate to see them off.  

The usual fast mouths of his boys were quiet on the drive into town, neither of them uttering a word or even glancing towards to drivers’ seat the whole way in. Owen didn’t open his mouth either letting the morning sit with them in the small confines of his car until he pulled into the park outside of their primary school.

Owen cleared his throat getting the boys attention whom where both unbuckling their seat belts. They looked to him eyes weary and mouth pulled together tight.

“What was all that about this morning?” Owen asked in a stern but gentle voice and he was met with two sheepish shoulder shrugs. He unbuckled his belt as the boys had done and moved his knees to face them. “You have to listen to your Mom, no if’s or buts. No questions asked. She takes care of all of us … and the farm that’s a hard job and all she asks is for you to listen”

Both boys’ heads were down looking at the fiddling thumbs in their laps. “Look up at me” Owen said sternly. They brought their heads up and eyes moved to catch his own. “You got that?”

“We got that” William repeated in an accepting tone and he reached across his brother from the far side of the truck sticking out his hand for his father to shake.

Owen took his eldest hand, shaking it and then Finnegan’s’ who had copied his brothers actions. After that the morning was forgotten and Owen walked the boys into their classes hugging each tightly before bidding them fear well for the day.  

His growling stomach lead him towards the diner in town, the only diner in town. It was practically lunch time for him and he hadn’t even gotten coffee to his lips. His empty stomach swirled and ached at him to get some food. He stomped along the footpath with his head down watching his boots while yawns still fell from his mouth. Instinctively he found the door of the diner and he pulled it, ringing the bell that alerted the owners new patrons had entered. The clink of the bell made him look up, it’s there that through the mildly grimy glass that Owen noticed the newest building in town.

In the once open lot across the road a small white building stood newly erect. It was demountable, elevated on small stilts with a few steps up to the freshly painted black front door. It had been jazzed up too with newly planted ferns around the paved entrance way and polished windows were sparkling in the morning light. What caught Owen’s eye however, was the sign hanging over the front door. In shining letters InGens logo stood proud and clean, harsh and unforgettable at the buildings centre.  

Owen was less than surprised and letting out his hold of breath he pushed through into the diner. Eyes’ irked and puffy from lack of sleep, he took a seat at the bar between the sheriff and town’s doctor.

“So I’m guessing that’s what the trucks were that about?” Owen grunted with a nod towards the pristinely white building across the street.  

Joan the woman who had run the diner for thirty years gave him a sympathetic smile from behind the counter and her eyes plus those of the sheriff and doctor all followed his gaze out across the road.

“They put it up last night love. Quick as a flash I could barely believe it” She told him, her voice soft as she nodded towards a group of work men sitting in a booth across the room.  

Sheriff Johnson leant in over his plate of eggs and bacon “I went over there this morning, the crack of dawn, see if they were up to code. Asked him for a permit, he didn’t even blink. Handed it over to me, all signed up and up to code” He told Owen in a hushed but purposeful voice. 

“It doesn’t surprised me” Owen said with a roll of his eye.

The bell of the diner rang which was quickly followed by the call of Owens name.

“Owen!” The mail man Bobby called out while he jogged through the door “I saw you through the window. I was just given this, told only to hand it to you” He said and handed over a thick envelope.

It looked official. There was a wax seal on the back with the official stamp of the county courts in the top right corner. The envelope on the front said private and confidential right above his full name, both of his middle names and everything. Owen considered waiting for privacy to opened the letter but his curiosity got the better of him and his shaky hands ripped at the red seal. He pulled out the folded papers inside, opening it up close to his chest, Owen cast his eyes down.

He read the first line, ‘The following letter advises you that you are required to attend a preliminary hearing at the offices of the district court in two months’ time”  

Owen’s mouth was dry and hung open as his eyes’ drew further down the page. It didn’t come as a surprise when he found InGen’s name in bold in the second paragraph. Most of the words he didn’t understand and all that they were saying confused him more than informed him.

He got up from his stool shaken and a little wobbly, papers clutched tight in his hand.  

“Is everything okay?” Joan asked as she leant her top over the bench.  

Owens’ nostrils flared and he stuffed the letter back into its envelope quickly, “I think I better call my sister”

 […]

**SEVEN YEARS, EIGHT MONTHS & TWELVE DAYS EARLIER**

Rachel had been locked in their shared bedroom for twenty minutes. She was pacing, Owen had heard her feet padding back and forth along the hard wood floor since the door was flicked shut. He had been leaning by his left shoulder on the edge of the hallway for just as long. Waiting out an appropriate amount of time for her to collect her thoughts and for him to collect his own and figure out what he was going to say next. He hadn’t heard any crying which he was taking as a good sign. If he was honest her reaction to the whole situation had surprised him. He had expected yelling, loud yelling and possible the toaster hurled at his head but instead the news was met with stillness and silence.

Owen’s ears peeked at the sound of silence, the pacing in the closed off room had halted and the squeaks of the heritage floor boards eased only to a single creek. He pushed himself of the wall with his shoulder, curious enough to approach the door. He felt a sudden numbness in his shoulder as the pressure of his weight evened out across his body and stepped carefully towards the boundary between him and her. He knocked gently but there wasn’t a response, even after he wrapped on the wood with his ring finger for the second time.

A moment passed and Owen knocked again, “Can I come in?” He asked gently.

“Yes” Was replied to him with a release of pent up air. 

Owen’s palm found the brass door knob and it was cold against his warm hand.  He twisted it and to his surprise it wasn’t locked. The door opened with his push, the squeak of the hinge heightened by the quietness of the cottage and the light from overhead flooded over him and into the dark hallway. Rachel was sitting on the blanket box and the edge of their bed. Her neck was bowed slightly and eyes in line with his clunky boots. Her arm muscles were tight by her sides as she griped onto the wooden lid of the box and she couldn’t bring her eyes up to look at him. 

Owen sucked in a breath through his nose and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed the lump in his throat before he took a seat next to her. His shoulder bumped against hers softly as he got comfortable and they shared a mild smile even though it only lasted for a second, no longer.

“None of this was intentional. I never even thought I would see her again” Owen told her with a slightly cracking voice.

Rachel sighed heavily turning her head to face him with an open mouth. As if she were about to say something to him but instead she turned back away. Her feet shuffled a little while she crossed her arms over her chest and she lift her chin to look up at the ceiling. Owen didn’t speak either but let her sit and find a reply in her own time. Her eyes caught onto his once as her nostrils flared with another deep breath but they pulled away to look at the wall once again.

He heard her wet her lips and a hitch in her throat before her actual words, “Do you even know for sure that this baby is yours?” She asked, her voice overwhelmingly serious. 

Owen nodded, “It’s my baby, she’s due in four months”

“So you’ve done a paternity test?” She asked back quickly.

“No” Owen said gently and he saw her eyes roll. “She’s having my baby. She offered to get a test done but I said no. I just know”

Rachel pulled away from beside him and stood up quickly “Women do this all the time Owen. It could be the milk mans’ baby for all you know”  

Owen clenched his jaw uncomfortably as the situation finally caught up with him and his eyes grew misty.

“She’s not like that. Trust me she’s just as scared about all of this as I am. I’m having a baby” He let out a breath and stood up, taking her hands into his own, “Look I know how hard this is going to be. I know how awful this must be for you, because I’m not having a baby with you. But that doesn’t mean that our future ends it just means that we’re going to have someone else to love and that our life isn’t going to be cookie cutter, mom, dad, two kids and a dog. It’s gonna be all sorts of awkward and weird but that’s okay”

He squeezed her fingers and water began to swell in the bottom of Rachel’s’ eyes. Her baby blues bore into his green eyes as their hands held together and low, swaying gently from shivering arms. Rachel’s blond hair bounced when her head fell onto his chest and his arms wrapped around her back to squeeze her tightly.

Pulling away, warmth still beaming off them, Rachel wiped away her lightly fallen tears and sat back down on the oak blanket box. “What’s her name?”

A tiny bit of relief bit at the corner of Owens mouth and he followed, sitting down next to his fiancé. “Her name is Claire. She knows about you. She was really worried about how this would upset you actually”  

Rachel nodded, “Is it a boy or a girl?”

Owen’s eye’s opened wider. He hadn’t really even thought about that. “We don’t know”

“Do you know how all of this is going to work?” She asked with a raised brow.

“No not really” We only had a day or two to talk” He told her and rubbed at his forehead. “I invited her to come and visit the farm”

 She looked to him, eyes wide, unsure and uneased and he knew down deep that this was a look he was going to have to get used to.

 […]

When Maggie insisted on coming out to the farm Owen was almost blue in the face from telling her not to bother ‘They were fine’ he said, that ‘she didn’t need to drop everything and rush two states over’. But now two weeks later with her sitting beside him he couldn’t be happier that she possessed a stubborn streak.

The sun was fighting its way through the low lying grey clouds giving the horizon a smoky glow as Owen turned into the drive of his family’s hard earned legacy. The fields were still as rocks crunched under the thick tyres of his truck. Tractors dormant in the fields and quiet work sheds that where empty for the day. It was always an odd day when no one was working the farm but with four children unwell and a court case looming uncomfortably in the air Owen thought it was best for the farm to stay still for a day or two. He rolled his truck into an eased stop in his usual spot next to the side fence of the cottage. The grumbling of the engine stuttered and then came to silence once the keys were turned in the ignition and Owen looked over to his sister who’s eyes were wide with a simple smile as she took in the current state of her childhood home.

Her eyes followed the line of the horizon, scanning over every field in view and sizing up the trees growing up the perimeter. “What do those people want with this place?” She said voice somewhat bewildered.  

Owen sighed, “Don’t know. But they’re taking a pretty good run at us”

Both let their heavy shoulders fall and together they sank back into the fraying leather seat with loud breaths filling in the empty air. They let a few minutes’ pass in silence, watching birds play in the long grass content and familiar to be in each others company and firmly sitting in the place that raised them both.

Maggie looked too him after another silent moment, “We’re gonna smash this, Dude” She told him with an amused grin.

Owen laughed with a chuff and his shoulders shook as he stepped out of the drivers seat and onto the rustling gravel. “Dude?” He mocked, still chuckling at the back of his throat.

Maggie snorted a sharp giggle and followed her brothers’ actions, swinging the rusty truck door shut with a thud.

“I don’t know. I’m suddenly fourteen again when I’m around you” She mumble.

Both still chuckling they trod around the truck heading towards the cottage gate that was almost swallowed whole by rose vines. With Maggie out in front Owen stopped by the trucks back tray and she continued to walk on with a little skip thrown into her steps.

  
“I’ll get your bags then shall I?” Owen called out in his muchly underused sarcastic big brother voice.

She turned her head back over her should still stepping further away from him with an overt eye roll and quip ready on her tongue but before she had used it she was squealing loudly and embracing his wife whom had just opened the cottage’s front door.

Owen huffed, biting at his smirk and with a bow of his head he pulled her heavy bags out of the tray of his truck.    

[…]

 **SEVEN YEARS, SIX MONTHS & FIVE DAYS EARLIER** 

Owen’s trucks suspension was terrible. He had never taken much notice of it, until he had a woman who was six months pregnant sitting in the front seat. The trucked bounced and rattled and shook them from side to side, wobbling heavily over every dip, rock and crack found on the road. He noticed Claire’s hand sitting tight on top of her swollen belly while the other grip tight on the handle above the window. He grit his teeth at every upcoming obstacle, apologising over and over while she sucked in a sharp breath.   

His gaze flicked over to her stomach every chance he got, amazed at how in just a short amount of time how much she had changed…

How much everything had changed. The farm was normal; crops, cattle and dirt same old routine but things over all were just different. The air somehow was different. For one, Owen learnt how to use skype, which then leant to him learning how to respond to his email rather than letting mail sit for a year. He and Claire had been learning how to talk to each other, getting to know one another for hours through the computer screen nearly every night. Distance wasn’t easy it was the hardest obstacle they had to face but through perseverance their connection as the life they had created together continued to grow. Now he felt this sense of anticipation. It flourished without him realising, knowing that just around the corner was a life changing event meant everyday he felt a rush of joy, fear, excitement, panic and stress all jumbled into one.   

Rachel was coming to terms with their circumstance, to some degree that is. Owen wouldn’t lie and say it had been easy because it hadn’t. Neither knew how to navigate the situation causing a fresh wound to open nearly every night. He kept telling himself ‘If the situation was in reverse’ and they patched over the leaking holes of their relationship with a newly found acceptance. He caught her once or twice with the slightest touch of glee when picking out some baby clothes or looking over the updated sonogram pictures. But she was quick to catch herself when caught up in the moment and the reality of their situation always seemed to be sitting in the room with them.

“It’s not too far away I promise” Owen tried to assure the red head to his right.

“It’s okay really, I’m just going to need the toilet as soon as we get there” Claire chuckled, holding tighter onto the hand rail above her head.

He wasn’t lying when he said they weren’t far away from Elk and Oak and five minutes later they had pulled into the mile long drive. The dogs were waiting by the gate for him as he slowed along dirt and they chased at his wheels barking in excitement at their arrival home.

“This is it” Owen smiled eye’s glowing at the vastness of his home.

Claire leaned forward in her seat as they tinkered closer to his cottage and her checks pulled tight with a wide smile. Keeping one eye on the driveway, Owens other watched her with wild amazement. She moved her face from left to right, eyes moving over the distant mountains and growing fields while her hands unconsciously rubbed at her belly.

When pulling to a stop she turned to him “It’s beautiful Owen”

He took a moment to take in the familiar view and nodded in agreement, “It’s something special. Sometimes I have to remind myself that”

They made their way from the truck into the empty cottage, Owen carrying the extra few kilos of her luggage on his back. He gave her a quick tour of his home and she seemed to coo every few seconds at its quaintness. It gave him a warm feeling one that crept up his fingers and into his hear just to know that she approved of his little home. The tour ended in the spare room at the start of the hall that once belonged to his sister. He dumped her bags on the edge of the bed and left her with an awkward pause to get some rest.  

Closing the door behind him, Owen ran around picking up the thrown clothing that were yet to find their way into the laundry basket. He’d sawn he’d straightened up that morning but dirty jeans and stray socks seemed to be dangling over every available chair in the house.  

“Show me around the place”

Owen jumped at Claire’s sudden but chirpy voice, throwing the jeans in his hands over his shoulder. He spun around to find her a step or two away now donning jeans and a bomber jacket.  

“Don’t you want to rest?” He asked with a glance down at her stomach.

She rolled her eyes with a smirk, “I’m only pregnant, I don’t need to go to bed a four thirty”

Owen nodded quickly, “Alright, well this way then” He said shaking off the loose clothes he had collected and showed her back out of the cottage door.  

He’d decided his truck wasn’t a good idea for an even bumpier journey around the farm. Instead he chose the ATV (which was more of a glorified golf cart), parked just a short walk from the cottage door. He helped her into the seat beside the drivers’ side before walking around to put the cart in reverse and back it onto the grass trail that would take him over to the stables. His foot hit the peddle but only at the slightest touch and they rolled to be just faster than walking speed.

Claire most have noticed their slowed speed because she laughed, “It’s okay, you can go a little faster”

Owen pushed his foot down to ease into a faster pace, and he smirked “You have precious cargo. I’m just being responsible” He said playfully and she laughed smiling at the side of her cheek.  

They first stopped at the stables where he showed off his housed horses and then moved over to the arenas and freshly planted fields of corn. Worried about the dissension of the sun Owen wanted to hurry over to his favourite spot on the entire property so he kept each spot short and hurried them off into the further distance. Over the ‘little hill’ and down in a hollow, a pond welcomed families of growing ducks and bellowing frogs. Flowers grew around it’s bank and a willow tree hung with low branches dipping into the water on the far side.

It was Owen’s favourite spot on the farm, a place he would visit to contemplate, ponder and wonder. He heard an auditable gasp from Claire when the ATV pulled to the mound of the hill and the sun sitting with a beautiful mix of pink and orange glowed through the trees and sparked across the smooth water.

Owen rolled the ATV down the hill, killing the engine before they had reached the bottom and they came to an organic stop. He offered her his hand again and showed her over to the picnic chair perched delicately amongst a bed a growing flowers.   

“Evelyn Grady? Is that your Grandmother?” Claire asked softly after noticing the small engraved gold plaque nailed into the centre of the seat’s back bench.

“No, that’s my mother” Owen answered softly.

They sat down together his stare following over the shining water while her eyes looked curiously towards him. He could tell she was wondering whether to ask him more questions. Almost finding the courage and then biting back like her teeth on her lover lip.

Owen never talked about it. His mother, even if he tired he could never get the words past the lump in his throat. Whenever her name was mentioned he turned back into the nine-year-old boy peaking out of the window, watching as the sheriff solemnly walked up to their door, the little boy who knew something was wrong even before it was said and the little boy who saw his father fall crying into the officers’ arms.

“She died when I was nine, her car was hit by a drunk driver. She was five months pregnant. It was awful” He told he in a near whisper. Claire was still and silent, when he brought himself to look at her. Her face was almost pale white and sympathetic words sat caught in her throat. A gentle smile fell over his lips, “She was the kindest person I’ve ever known the world is a better place from having her in it”

Claire’s hand slid smoothly across the wooden frame and crept on top of his, squeezing as her fingers slipped in the gap between his thumb and fingers, “I’d have known she was kind even if you hadn’t said”

“Oh?” He gasped with a surprise.

“She made you didn’t she?” Claire smiled bumping her shoulder against his.

[---] 

The dining room table had been covered from one end to the other, books were piled in stacks beside boxes of filed Elk and Oak history and loose papers scattered across the wood unanchored and susceptible to the breeze rustling through the curtains. Owen, Claire and Maggie had been sitting there for hours the room had grown dark early with an overcast sky and the lights were dimly lit to shield the sensitive eyes of the sick children whom were scattered across any comfortable surface in the near lounge room.   

“Mr Grady, has any part of your land been sectioned of for quarantine or not accessible to the public due to a contamination? Maggie asked from across the table as read off a piece of paper in her hand.

This had been happening all afternoon, through interruptions from coughing children and rain sputtering in from open windows Maggie had been drilling himself and Claire. Forcing them to remember questions and recognise the language of the law. InGen had found a ‘loop hole’ as his sister put it, that by some unexplainable reason meant InGen could question the rights of the Grady’s had to their land. He didn’t understand it all nor did he believed he could. It was all fine print and something about planning permissions from before he was even born.

“No there hasn’t been, certainly not since I’ve been alive” Owen replied as he stifled through his brain.

Maggie's face and tone was actually starting to scare him and with every moment she left for dramatic effect he started to second guess himself. Silent she past him over a piece of paper with a passage of it marked out by a yellow highlighter.

“Can you please read this out loud to the court Mr Grady?” Maggie asked with a raised brow.  

Owen read the opening passage out loud, “Cody County Order of Quarantine for Elk and Oak Farmstead” Owen looked at Maggie brows knitted together. “What?”

“What does that mean?” Claire asked in a weary voice from the seat beside Maggie.

“It doesn’t mean anything, all of the farms in the area had a ‘Do Not Enter’ order, during the war. But they will try to use anything against us” His sister explained.

“Daddy?” A shaky voice cracked into the quiet house.

The three adults looked towards the open room to their left. William stood at the edge of the sofa, his cheeks rosy from a fever and eyes grey and puffy from a tired body.

“Yeah bud?” Owen asked keeping his voice low as to not disturb the other children.

William pad softly over too where his father sat and softly wrapped an arm around Owen’s thick shoulder leaning his feverish body into Owen’s side. Owen giving Claire a quick glance then wrapped an arm around his son’s hip and kissed the side of his reddened forehead. William timid and slow ran his eyes over the contents on the table and tears swelled pooling before dropping onto his cheeks.

“Hey what’s wrong?” Owen gasped in a whisper and pulled his boy to sit on his lap, wrapping both arms around him tight and warm. He shared a worried glance with his wife surprise and flustered about their child whom was never quick to cry.  

The tears dropped through Owen’s cotton shirt giving his skin a chill as they got heavier. Rubbing William’s back Owen rocked them back and forth whispering to the small boys’ ear that he was safe and okay.

Claire’s face was torn with concern from across the table and Owen gestured for her to take the seat beside him. She did so, getting up quickly but before she could take the empty seat she was pulled into the lounge room by Everly whom had woken up angry and looking for her lost pacifier. Claire laid her back down with relative ease the pacifier now working over-time in her wind burnt mouth and the red head tucked the blankets higher on the two sleeping boys before coming back into the dining room.

Owen’s stayed rocking William as Claire sat beside them and her hand immediately went to softly rub Williams back.

“What’s wrong bud?” Owen tried to ask softly again.

William’s breaths hitched and he spluttered and coughed trying to find his voice through a scratchy throat and heaving body.  

“Those people are they going to take our farm from us” William wept pulling his face up from Owen’s shoulder.

Hoskins was the luckiest man in the world not be in arms length of Owen right now. If he were more than just his nose would be broken. Owen had to suck in a breath and consciously make sure that his grip hadn’t drawn tighter around the small frame of his boy. They had tried to shield each child and keep the dark shadows of InGens quest away from touching their curious minds. But somethings were bound to trickle through to their eldest child and the fear of William finding out information that was not meant for his ears had now become a reality.

Owen let out a long breath, “They’re not taking our farm okay you don’t have to worry”

William whimpered still gasping for captured air, “I don’t want to cry Daddy, but I’m scared”

“You can cry sweetheart. But you don’t have to be scared okay. We have Aunty Maggie and she’s going to kick their arse” Owen said with a forced chuckle. William coughed out a laugh and rubbed away his tears with crutched knuckles. “Okay you don’t worry, we will never let anything happen to the farm or you, okay” Owen said just louder than a whisper and he pushed back William’s sandy blond hair. William blinked, nodding as he rubbing his hand under his nose. “So you’re not going to worry anymore right?”

Swallowing deep, William shook his head, “No I’m not going to worry anymore”

They sat in silence close and focused on the worried boy. Williams breathing was raspy against his fathers chest and Owen’s knees were tight with pent up rage. His nostrils flared as he sucked in heavy breaths and his eyes pointed up to the ceiling to hide his watering eyes.  

Claire’s hand found his cheek softly, “Breath, Honey”  

Owen looked over to his wife pained cheeks and a scrunched nose, “I hate this”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Incase you missed it Owen's ex-fiance is Rachel the town council woman whom we met in the chapter before.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always welcome :)


	7. Part 4.01

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's fluff and family and a little bit of drama (not to much), but there is also a big life changer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is chapter is setting up the final part (*gritting teeth together). Apologies I got a bit carried away and it is quiet long. Really hope you enjoy this instalment. I love this story and any response I get from people enjoying this story really does make my day.

**SEVEN YEARS, FIVE MONTHS & TWENTY SEVEN DAYS EARLIER**

The cottage lights were already on by the time Claire and Owen had come back over the hill, their muddy boots flicked off at the door and tired feet trudged through the living room. Evidence of Rachel was everywhere, her car keys were splayed across the kitchen bench, textbooks stacked unevenly and about to fall on the kitchen table and her coat lay still on the floor as though just fallen from her shoulders. 

“Ah…Rachel should be here somewhere” He told Claire and she gave him a nervous nod. 

She smiled but it was short and taken over by her teeth biting into her bottom lip, “Okay”

Owen rubbed at the back of his neck with a sweaty palm, titling his head awkwardly he stayed stationary while he was meant to be moving his feet. “Ah alright” He stuttered and shuffled his feet to find his direction. He raised his brows gesturing with an open palm for Claire to take a seat and she shuffled around him before he followed the path into the hallway.

The sputtering sound of water started to rumble down the hall and steam clouded low to the ground from under the bathroom door. Owen made his way towards the sound, wrapping his knuckles on the wooded bathroom door when he arrived behind it and he waited for a response. He heard a ‘yeah’ faintly over the sound of the shower and answered back with “Can I come in?”

Another ‘yeah’ was faint again and Owen twisted the brass knob, for a moment expecting it to be locked before letting himself into the room. He closed the door behind him and the heavy steam that had clung to every inch of air made his eyes water. Rachel with wet hair pulled over her left shoulder cleared the steamy glass of the shower frame with her palm, eye’s wide and blinking towards him. 

Owen smiled, showing his teeth, “Hi. Claire’s here” Told her while flicking his eyes in the direction of the bathroom. 

Rachel nodded, with her blond hair clinging to the skin of her shoulder “I know”, She said with little surprise in her voice, “I want be long”

Owen’s smile widened to compensate for Rachel’s lack of emotion, “We’re gonna pop on dinner, so don’t be to long”

Rachel rolled her eyes while she wiped a droplet of water off her nose, “I want be long Owen, okay”

Owen rubbed his palms together, nodding at his fiancé with a perplexed half smile and not a minute later he came out of the bathroom to leaving Rachel to prolong her meeting of Claire (which is for sure, what he thought she was doing). He wondered back to the living room, to find Claire standing in the stop he had left her, hands in her back pockets and eyes glazing towards the family photo’s on the wall. 

Owen announced himself with a crackly chuckle, “I was a cute kid wasn’t I?”  He joked nodding his head towards the photo display. 

Claire’s hands pulled from her pockets as if she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, her eyes racing back towards him at the sound of his voice, “You look cheeky, that’s what kind of kid you were”

Owen mocked the sound of a tut, “I was very well behaved…mostly… sometimes” He smiled nodding to himself. “I was cheeky”. 

Claire laughed at the floor and her eyes looked so beautifully like the sea, the perfect mix of greens and blues caught in the light from above. 

“Come on, I’ll make you some dinner” He said pulling his focus away from the colour of her eyes. 

Claire followed him into the kitchen and she washed her hands with soap at the sink which made Owen hurry to do the same. He gave her the task of peeling potato’s after she insisted on helping while he chopped and prepared them to boil. He could tell her feet were getting tired as she shuffled the weight of their baby from foot to foot. So he collected the stool from the other side of the counter and placed it down, helping her take a seat all while she continued to peel a potato. 

Chopping another potato Owen bit the side of his mouth, “So is the eating for two thing real?”

Claire paused while running the peeler half way down the vegetable, “You mean, am I eating more than usual?” She asked with her eyebrows raised. 

“Yeah, I.. was just cur…”  He stopped himself suddenly feeling as if he overstepped.

Claire laughed at the worry on Owen’s face, “It’s okay, I like how you ask questions” She said with a grin catching even in her eyes, “And.. these days I’m pretty much hungry all of the time”

Owen laughed through his nose, “You’ve definitely got my kid in there then” 

He placed down the sharp knife in his hands and wiped his hands on the tea towel beside him before moving his arm gently down to splay his palm out on the swell of Claire’s stomach. He moved his hand smoothly from left to right feeling the curve of the bump when his hand bent and his heart beat thumped fast almost making him loose his breath. He stilled at the centre widening his fingers to cover more of her stomach, she looked up at him with a quick rise in her brows and Owen thought maybe she was uncomfortable with his touch but her hand was fast and pulled his to the right and flattened his palm to a the curve of her stomach. Owen looked to her with curious eyes when he felt a patter against his palm. His mouth fell open and eyes opened wide like owls and it happened again, two quick taps felt through her skin and onto his so gentle but present, as if his baby had known it was him.  

From the corner, the sound of someone clearing their throat made both Owen and Claire’s faces lift and tilt to the side. Rachel with a towel still drying her hair stood just out side the kitchen, loose top tucked into baggy jeans and an expression that was impossible to read. 

Owen’s hands shot quickly was from Claire’s stomach and back onto his hips and one bent up to scratch the edge of his side burn, “Umm Claire this is..”

“Rachel” His fiancé finished for him and stuck out her towel free hand towards Claire, “It’s nice to finally meet you”

Claire stood making the stool creak across the kitchen tiled floor. She took Rachel’s hand shaking it with a weary smile, “ Yeah, you too”

[…]

Summer had been welcomed into the valley, the new heat greatly needed after a much to long winter. School was on break, the kids home and asking to be entertained every minute but the farm kept rolling with crops ready for harvest and cows fat and ready for auction. The late spring storms seemed to have pasted  leaving clear blue cloudless skies and brightly growing flowers scattered from field to field. But the clouds loomed, dark and persistent in Owen Grady’s mind, a date he feared coming closer and eating away at him till their unfortunate fate would be read out in court. It was growing tiresome to put on fake smiles for the energetic children and the late nights of legal research most of which Owen still didn’t understand took a toll on family, fun and even love. 

The town fate was on, ride’s, attractions and rodeo set up with sparkling lights over the show ground in the centre of town, flyers up in every store, children giddy with excitement and new faces walking along the Cody streets. Claire had been the one that suggested they go, it was inevitable they would end up there but hard to remember a day that was just there to enjoy. The boys’ had been talking non stop about their art piece’s that hung in the community tent and William had pointed out that it would be Everly’s first time to the fair, a small parcel of family trivia that slipped past even Claire’s mind.   

It was the weekend morning and getting excited boys into summer clothes, shoe’s, hats and sunscreen nearly used up a days worth of patients just in a few short minutes and that was before the car ride when it was about to over spill. ‘I Spy’ only entertained them for ten minutes , before bursting energy couldn't be contain in their singular seats and flailing limbs took over and the game turned into hitting each other, which always prompted Claire to say ‘Why do boys do that?’. Owens fierce eye caught on one of his children keeping them at bay for only two minutes until their curled up caps were used as weapons and forearms as shields. William from the very back seat reached over into the middle finding his brothers face to slap with the side of his cap. Finn flung back both hands flying, one up to his older brother in the seat behind and the other reaching across his sisters seat in the middle to Hugo whom was reaching over to do the same. 

Owens hands gripped tighter on the steering wheel trying to ignore the chaos behind him, he could see Claire’s agitation growing as her front teeth bit down into her lower lip and her eyes opened and closed heavily while they stared up at the cars ceiling. The sound of slaps from the caps continued for another minute, that was disguised as an hour, before Everly’s screeching cries took over. Her little cheeks were already red raw from the pain of teething and her temperature a little higher than average as her back teeth worked on pushing up through her skin. The boys game had gotten to much for the baby stuck in the middle and Owen honestly couldn’t blame her. 

“HEY…” Owen started with a raised voice. But his wife swift and fast unclipped her seat belt and turned to the back of the car, all the children in her sight and he cut himself short. 

“Stop right now or you will not have a good day! There will be no rides or candy or fun if you keep this up. Do you under stand me?” She barked keeping her voice authoritative without flying of the handles.  

Owen shut his lips together, holding back another punishment or two that he was willing to dish out. The boys stopped frozen, their backs straight against their seats and eyes cast down to their laps with whispered ‘Yes’s’ barely heard through Everly’s constant cry. Claire huffing turned back to rummage in her hand bag for a pacifier which she past to the back for the baby. The car kept rolling with Everly’s sobs now buffered by a pacifier but still present. 

Clipping her seatbelt back on Claire sighed, flicking the loose strands of her auburn hair out of her face, “Can you hold her hands please?” She asked the boys behind, her voice still agitated due to her children’s misbehaviour.   

“Here Evie” Finn said softly as he took his sisters hand to hold tight and Hugo did the same on the other side.  

As the distance to town grew shorter the car stayed silent with at least ten minutes passing without anyone making a sound. Everly had dozed off into a gentle sleep, her brothers still holding each of her hands and the boys hadn't been brave enough to let out even a loud breath. 

Owens eyes flicked to Claire, who’s feet where propped up on the dashboard and her hair was moving gently from the small crack at the top of the passenger window. His eyes then found the rear view mirror catching the board faces of each child. He let out a long breath, letting his eye’s follow over the same path again, the silence was getting to him. 

“Sooo, have you seen any good movies lately?” Owen joked with a a chuckle catching in his breath. 

Claire turned to him with a breathy laugh and a smirk etching at the right of her mouth. After a moment to boys chuckled too sensing that the tension built up in the confines of the car was broken. Owen reached an arm over the centre console and with his fingers splayed wide he rest his hand just above his wife’s knee. 

With a smile between he and Claire, Owen looked back into the mirror again, “Hey William”

“Yeah Dad?” William answered back quickly, his voice elated just from being spoken too. 

“What do you think I should get Mama for our anniversary?” Owen asked, and he saw Claire roll her eyes, smile still biting at her lips.  

Finn let out a gasp from the middle row, eyes wide and excited, “You should get a remote control aeroplane, Dada that would be so much fun” 

Owen let out a short a laugh in his throat and Claire’s smile grew wider, “I think that is something Finnegan wants not Mom” She said, with her head poking between the side of her chair and head rest. “And that was a question for William bud”   

William paused before he spoke, sighing heavily as he heaved his whole chest, “I think keeping the farm is a good present, that’s what you should get for your anniversary”   

Owen’s heart just about stopped, his eyes quick to look into the mirror and catch his sons expression. William was gazing out the glass his face neutral and his hand resting on the window plane and sat underneath his chin. Owen’s breath was heavier, his mind unable to find the right words to respond to his child and the grip of his single hand on the steering wheel made the veins in his arm pop. 

Claire’s eyes watching Owen carefully bit her bottom lip, “Personally I wouldn’t mind a new hand bag” 

Her hand always so soft ran over the top of Owen’s hand resting on her knee and her fingers tucked in the gap between his palm and she squeezed, running her thumb over his. 

[…]

Town was busier than Owen had seen it in an age. Pickups and wagons filled every spare car park and the road was more of a sidewalk than a place for traffic as family after family wondered towards the fair ground. It took them ten minutes just to find a place to leave the car and when they had it wasn’t in the shade like Owen had hoped. The boys took it upon themselves to unbuckle their belts as soon as the engine was switched off, even Hugo whom still sat in a baby seat with complicated straps. Owen and Claire got out themselves with a burst of heat hitting them right in the cheeks as they stepped into the open air. Claire was quick to catch each child as they jumped from the truck to the dusty ground, ducking her head as she did to check on the baby whom was slowly waking from her nap. Owen opened up the back to pull out the pram that to this day still managed to confuse him as Claire lined up the boys to lather sunscreen from their ears down to their ankles. 

“Mommy can we go on the dodgem cars first?” Finn asked in a wobbly voice as his cheek was smothered in sunscreen. 

“No the huge slide first” William argued from beside his younger brother. 

Owen ducked his head around the corner from the back of the car, “Hugo can choose what we do first” He said while pulling up the handle of the stroller. 

He heard the two older boys sigh and triumphant yes coming from the smallest boy whom was sitting on the floor of the car with his feet dangling in the open air. Owen pulled at the stroller forgetting once again if he was meant to push up or pull down on the clip at the side. Curse words were ready to be unleashed on the tip of his tongue as he shook at the pram trying just to get it to stay up right. 

He spun 90 degrees at the dirt shaking the stroller in his  hand, stopping quickly as he caught a pair of boots in his sight only a step away from him. He looked up,  “Rachel, sorry I didn’t see you there” He apologised to the familiar blond standing in front of him. 

“It’s okay” Rachel assured him with raised brows and a quick smirk as she glanced over the half folded pram in his hands. In her hand she played with a white enveloped and looked down to it before she out stretched her hand offering it to Owen, “Sorry to do this to you today, but I thought you’d want to know about this before Monday, it’s from the court house”

Owen let go of the strollers largest handle, and rubbed his hands on the back of his jeans before taking the envelope from her, “Oh umm… thank you”

“It’s no problem. Try not to worry about it today okay” Rachel said shoving her right hand into her pocket, she watch him look over the front with out opening it and then the back and he saw her bite at her lip while his eyes were cast down. He looked back up smiling with a gentle nod which she did to him in return and she moved around him to walk away, “Have fun at the fair”

His hands bouncing the envelope in his palms looked down to the paper again with the sound of her boots scratching up the dirt, “Rachel” He called out from not to far away, “Thank you for this”

She pause with a sympathetic smile, “No problem Owen”, she nodded softly and walked away towards the fairs entry. 

Claire appeared around to the open boot of the car, a dollop of sunscreen in her hand and sunglasses almost falling from her nose, “What is it?”

Owen didn’t answer her right away, instead he opened the letter addressed to him from the Wyoming courts and skimmed over the sort paragraph in the centre of the A4 page. His eyes rolled back with a sigh from deep in his chest and he looked up to his wife, eyes solum as he looked into hers, “They’ve moved our court date up”

Owen stuck out the letter in Claire’s directions and she took it with her sunscreen free hand. She pushed her sunglasses up into her hair and stretched out the paper to read over it. 

Her arms fell down her sides and shoulders slumped, “Our anniversary weekend” She barked with a squeak and her sunglasses dropped down onto her nose. “Seriously” She sighed pushing her glasses angrily back up to her hair, “The one time”

Owen tried to give her a gentle smile but by her face he could tell that she wasn’t buying it. They stood a foot away from each other, eye’s locked and telling each other exactly what the other were thinking with no words and the distant sound of screams from the running rides and from closer the sound of their children’s feet kicking at the dusty ground. 

“Hi… Mama”, A little voice sound and from inside the car Everly’s squeaky voice called out.

Claire running her hand through her hair turn her torso towards the open car door, “I know Bubba I didn’t forget you” She turned back to Owen shoulders slumping even further down, “The one time I organised for us to go away on our own”

“I know” Owen stepped forward and ran his hand around his wife’s hip and squeezed. He pulled her close to his chest and closing his eyes he dropped a kiss down into her hair, “I’ll sort it out okay”

[…]

**SEVEN YEARS, FIVE MONTHS & TWENTY SEVEN DAYS EARLIER**

Owen was already covered in sweat, his shirt gripping to his torso and it was only seven thirty in the morning. He’d checked the northern fence line and fixed the filter on the harvester all before the sun had even breached the tree line. He’d slept like a baby the night before, his belly full and heart content with all precious to him sleeping under his one roof. He was happy to get up even earlier than usual to get all of his tedious tasks out of the way to be up at the cottage just as Claire woke. 

He jumped the metre up to the wooden porch, ten gallon hat bouncing on his head and belt clanging on his waist. He marched towards the front door, hand already out to turn the metal knob. Cool brass in his hand he went to turn when he paused at the sight of his soon to be wife through the window by the door. She sat with a steaming coffee in he hand, text box open in her lap and pen flicking in her right hand. He wondered as she caught in his eyes, how he could possibly whether this confusing storm while keeping two important woman happy.     

He went to twist the handle but was stopped again as Claire walked into the open room, she stopped before coming further into Rachel’s sight, “Morning” Claire greeted the blond and Owen could her her clearly from the glass.  

He watch Rachel’s reaction, “Morning” she answered back, looking over the top of her coffee mug. “Owen’s checking the fences, he should be back soon”

“Oh okay” Claire said with surprise, standing still in the space between the kitchen and the living room, eyes glancing around the open windows and Owen had to duck quickly behind the wooden door.

Satisfied that Claire couldn’t see him he leaned back to watch through a sliver in the glass. Claire moved, finding the arm chair closest to the fire place and she perched on the edge of the plump cushion. 

Rachel leaned forward and placed her mug on the coffee table in front of her, “Did you sleep well?”

Claire huffed, rubbing her hands over her swollen stomach, “I don’t ever sleep well these….”  Rachel nodded and flicked over the page in her text book while Claire opened and closed her mouth three times before she leaned forward ever so slightly took look Rachel in the eye, “Look I’m really sorry about this, I can’t even imagine…”

Rachel tilted her head before Claire could finish and slowly closed her text book, “What this is like for me?” 

The red head gave a single nod, “Yeah”  

Rachel licked at her bottom lip and her eyes looked up to the ceiling when her lips shut tight, “We were going through a lot. So I called it off. But then five months later we were okay again. We said we’d forget about what happened in the five months we were apart and we’d start again, but it’s not so easy when..”

Claire’s nostrils flared with a deep breath, “I came along” 

“Can I ask you something?” Rachel asked while her thumb played with her fingers and Owen leaned forward. 

“Sure” Claire agreed as she looked into Rachel’s eye. 

“Why’d you tell him?” Rachel tilted her chin, and Owen audibly gasped. “You barely know him, you didn’t know if he would even want to be part of the babies life. You could have just had the baby and raised it exactly the way you wanted to”

Claire’s back grew straighter and she furrowed her brow, “Because he had the right” Her voice was strong and steady and her hands was tight on the swell of her stomach, “And _‘our’_ child has the right to know were they come from”

Owen watching from behind the window decided  it was time for the conversation in front of him to end and with his hand still on the handle he turned the knob, pushing it open he walked into the cottage.   

“Morning ladies” He greeted the woman with a bright voice, saving them all from hearing something that didn’t need to be said out loud. 

[…]

The line at the ‘Corn on the Cob’ stand was moving slowly, the sun high in the sky with midday heat beating down on the energetic show ground. Owen was standing four people deep from the end of the line with another five in front of him. The kids had been grumpy and whining for food for half an hour. All of them unsatisfied with whatever they where offered, their tummies rumbling and tempers growing thin. Claire’s hairs were on edge and the tips of her ears already red with sunburn when she shoved her wallet into his hands while barking at the children to find a spot to sit while their father fetched them food. 

Standing still in the line Owens brain tried to move into stormy territory, drama trying to bleed in at the one moment he had time to think. He kept his mind moving by playing with his wedding ring and listing off in the back of his mind all the jobs that he had waiting for him back at the farm, and it was actually giving him a headache. The line in front of him moved up one each minute until finally in the searing heat he reached the front. He ordered more than he could carry which coast more than it was worth and he waited to the side with a large roll of his eyes at every second that past while he stood in the unbearable humidity.  

Sweat was dripping from his brow, his side burns sticking down to his skin, when “Owen” was finally called from behind the counter of the food truck.

Owen raised his eyebrows taking the five hot corn cobs and many drink bottles he had ordered with a thank you. His feet moved quickly over to the condiment table to the side of the van with hot butter dripping onto his fist. he dropped the hot corn down a cardboard tray available as fast as he could while juggling the two bottles of water and three juice poppers that were stuffed under his arms. He reached for the pile of napkins there for the taking and shoved a stack into his pockets and gathered any thing he could that would help to wrangle his children. Owen’s own stomach was grumbling with the smell of freshly grilled corn following up into her senses. 

Collecting the food and drinks in both arms Owen turned to find his family. He took one step away from the table, with his eyes focused down on the food he was balancing in the cardboard tray.  His eyes came up quickly to see where he was going and almost ran into a wide man before he took another step. The man slightly leant over the table bent back up to full hight and Owen realised whom it was in front of him. 

“Grady” Hoskins chuffed, the man Owen had been avoiding for two months nodded with shinning teeth.

Owen rolled his eyes, “Hoskins” He growled from the back of his throat, anger already starting to bubble inside him from just the sight of the greying man.

“Family day out?” Hoskins asked as he bit a tooth pick between his teeth in a condescending tone. 

The glands at the back of Owens throat tightened making his jaw clench, “I’m not interested in small talk Hoskins”

Owen started to walk away, his elbow resting on his hips and the tray pulled against his chest. He took two steps and then another, his eyes focused forward to where he spotted his family whom were waiting for him under the shade of a tree. But his brain, or possibly his temper stopped him and he turned back to face Owen. 

“You know what you are doing to my family right?” Owen asked, with a huff. 

Hoskins brows raised, his smirk creeping further up his cheek and he chuckled letting out a puff of air from deep in his stomach. He took a step forward, stopping a just metre away from Owen. 

“What I am doing, Owen?” He chuckled again, “We tried to help your family. How many times did we off to make you a deal? How many times did we try to make this easier for you all?” Hoskins said to Owen with such conviction. 

Owen’s jaw clench tight and he sucked in a breath to keep his voice level, “Do you really believe that? You din’t have to come into our lives, to our home at all”

“Mr Grady I don’t think you understand what it is we want” He said with a tilt of his head, “Our company wants to help America, to move us forward into the world. That land would help us do that. We are trying to help your family, every family”

Owen started to shake his head before Hoskins had even finished and his finger gripped tighter on the cardboard between his fingers, “Stop saying you are helping us. You’re not. You want to know what you are doing? My son cries himself to sleep every night because he’s scared his home will be taken away. My wife is up till three in the morning every night trying to wrap her head around all this. You’re not helping us” Owen kept his voice low but stern through thick breaths spilled from his nose. 

Owen turned back towards Claire and the children, his legs pausing for a moment with his head dipped down before he took a step towards the shade.

“Did you every think you might be the one taking something from your family?” 

Owen holt again turning just his torso, “What are you talking about?” He said with an exasperated breath. 

Hoskins stepped closer to Owen and he could practically feel the mans breath on the back of his neck. “That money” Owen’s feet circled to face him with he side his hip pointing forward, “You could have done a lot with that. Maybe buy a nice place in New York let your wife use that fancy degree of hers, get those kids into an expensive prep school” Hoskins pressed his tongue to the side of his mouth, “Imagine the opportunities those kids would have with an education like that”  

Owen looked over his shoulder towards his family, the five of them sitting at a park table in the shade of a large tree, his boys feet dangled down, William’s dragging across the dirt and his little girl sat on the table top, Claire’s arm around her and smiles on their faces as Finnegan entertained them with a story. Hoskins words trickled into his mind no matter how he fought against them his conscious was always susceptible to the words of those who doubted his intent and ability to provide for his family. 

Owens clenched his teeth, “You don’t know my family or whats best for them” He grunted at Hoskins with narrow eyes and all though he still contemplated what Hoskins had said he made sure his own words were said with conviction, “So keep the advise to yourself” 

[…]

**SEVEN YEARS, TWO MONTHS & THREE DAYS EARLIER**

Sweat was dripping from Owen’s brow, the sun was high in the sky, almost at it’s point of decent and his eyes were burning from it’s rays. His hands although callused, hurt from the tight grip on his horses reins. The last steer bucked it’s way through the gates of their new pasture kicking up grass and dirt as he protested his relocation and Owen shut the gate behind the beast clamping the latch tight to keep his heard collected together. Another days work done at Elk and Oak.  

“Let’s call it a day boys” Owen called out to the two stable hands atop their horses to the left of him. 

“Up for a beer boss?” Jackson his head stable hand asked loudly above the sound of moving hooves as he turned his horses reins towards the homestead. 

Owen’s torso sighed and he ran a hand down his sweaty face, “I better not, I’m making dinner for Rachel”

Jackson looked over to the younger stable hand with a Jekyll grin showing his shining teeth and he whistled out the sound of a whip. The farm boys both laughed from the back of their throat, grins from ear to ear , enjoying more than anything thing the teasing directed at their boss and they kicked off with racing horses running towards the south west. Owen biting at the side of the smirk growing at his cheek, shook his head in humour. Squeezing his thighs into the side of River his horse, he turned following the galloping horses with a stir up of speckled dust. 

Wind whipped past his ears and his body felt alive under the power of the charging animal. Hooves galloping like thunder on the earth below. 

Owen pulled tight on the reins as he slowed between the open stable doors, holting quickly after the fast sprint. His legs adjusted as his boots hit the ground, his blood now flowing freely after three hours in the saddle. His fingers ran down River’s forehead thanking her with a soft touch. His hand ran smooth over the bays coat finding his way to the saddle strap tight around the horses flank. Owen pulled the heavy leather saddle, his muscles flexing as he took the weight in his arms and he placed it to his side. River shook with her new freedom, the muscles up her back loosening as her hair began to stick back up. Following with out a lead rope Owen brought her into the yard where the other horses were already waiting, and she found the water trough sitting full and ready for their arrival home. 

“We’ll take ‘em out boss. You better get your apron on” Jackson called out from across the yard, smirk high on his right cheek. 

Owen dipped his brim hat as a thank you, “See you in the mornin’ boys”

As he wondered towards his little cottage, the birds were playing in the setting sun, singing and building nests in the tree tops while others flew low across the fields dipping and looping above the grass. He could hear the stable hands taking the horses towards the field over and the animals delighted whinnies at the chance to run free. His boots stomped up the few steps to his front door, and he turned to let his eyes take in the roaring fields, and growing crops before he closed the day behind him. 

Inside was quiet as it always was in the late afternoon, a pin dropping would echo and bounce right off the mountains. Owen’s footsteps quietened as he kicked off his boots and his mind drifted to his bed that would be soft and warm on his tired back. He trod down the hallway turning instinctively at the door to his bedroom. The lights were on in there but dim and the last of the days sun broke through the gaps of the unusually closed curtains. Rachel was sitting on her side of the bed, one leg tucked under her bottom and the other dangling down the mattresses side. Her hands were moving, calmly folding clothes that she was then packing in to an open suitcase in front of her. 

Owen’s brow raised in surprise as he wonder curiously about his fiancés actions. He tucked his wonder away with a small smile and a soft kiss to the top of her head and her eyes flicked up for a moment, meeting his before she went back to folding. 

“What’s with the bag?” Owen asked while overlooking the cases contents and he sat on the other side of it tucking his leg under himself just as Rachel had sat. 

She looked at him, a look he couldn’t recognise before she spoke, “Claire’s mother called. She’s gone into labour”

Owen’s heart started to pound, his blood racing through him and his breath now caught at the back of his throat. His legs moved quickly forcing himself to stand with a bounce and his eyes were wide as he swallowed deep. He wondered when his mind cleared for just a second how his fiancé could have told him that so nonchalantly. But panic was moving quickly from his toes right up his chest and already starting to take him over. 

“What? When, when did she call?” Owens voice cracked with a piercing sound that he hadn’t heard since puberty. 

Continuing to fold her clothes, Rachel didn’t react to his sudden panic, “It must have been about an hour ago”

“AN HOUR AGO” Owen snapped with fire in his voice. Realising his raise in temperature he panted trying to calm himself. “We were meant to have another two weeks. Why didn’t you come and get me?”

He saw her roll her eyes. Actually roll her eyes. 

“I didn’t know where you were… and besides her mother said it was only early stages it will take hours” Rachel said still packing the case in front of her. 

“SO!” He said in disbelief “You could have asked…” He cut himself off as more ran through his mind and his focus shifted. He reached under the bed without eyes to help him and he pulled out a duffle bag that with it brought dust which caught under his nose. With a short run to the chest of draws against the far wall he pulled at the top draw, almost yanking it from its roller. His hands reached for anything, grabbing piles of once folded clothes and he shoved them in what ever manner they fell into the canvas bag. 

His breathing was getting more erratic, “I thought you didn’t want to come until the baby was a few weeks old” Owen stated with a quick glance over the two half packed bags between him and Rachel. 

“I don’t” She said back quickly. 

“Then why are you packing?”

Rachel paused, dropping the blouse she was folding into her lap and instead her hand ran through her thick blond hair, she let out a breath of captured air. “I’m giving you what you really want”

Owen’s brows knitted together, “What is that supposed to mean?”

Rachel stood, folding her arms as her feet found the ground. “I can’t do this anymore. Be with you. You have know idea how hard this is for me. You have no idea how I feel about it. And you don’t care, all that you care about is her.”

Owen’s face was blank, his heart nearly beating out of his chest, but his face still captured in disbelief. “You’re going to do this now? Really now?” He asked, with a tone that was already fed up. 

She looked at him with fierce eyes, “Everything is always about you isn’t it?”  She asked rhetorically with a huff, angrily picking up the blouse she had abandoned on the bed. 

“What are you talking about?” Owen breathed as he shook his head. “You know what? Right now, right now is about me, because my baby is being born thousands of miles away” 

“Exactly!” Rachel nodded with an exasperated breath. “You’ve already started a life without me.  This isn’t on me! Us, this, you’re the one who is throwing it away” 

Owen couldn’t look at her. His eyes forced themselves away and his body kept moving shoving more and more clothes into the quickly filling bag in front of him. He moved around the room slamming open draws shut and rummaged around in others to find his rarely used mobile phone, wallet, keys, passport anything he could think that would be even the slightest bit helpful in his situation. Nothing more was said, as they stepped around each other, their bodies set to boil and tight muscled. Rachel threw things from the walk in closet to the bed and Owen angrily tied the laces of his worn to death runners. Each huffed letting the other know they were angry and each thump got louder as they stayed confined. 

Owen zipped up his bag with purpose and flung it over his shoulder which hit him hard and with a slap on the back. His legs moved towards the door, car keys clanging in his pocket. He turned once in the door frame his face scrunched unpleasantly and eyes narrowed in on her. She looked to him the same with a piece of loose hair fallen between her eyes. “I am going to have my baby. Do what ever the hell you want”

Owen turned away with out a second glance behind.   

[…]

Owen pushed open the door to the bathroom and the soft smell of scented candles filtered through the air around him. Claire looked up at him with soft eyes, the water from the bathtub moving gently around her knees making a soothing rippling sound. The scented candles flickered with shadows against the walls in the dull light from the over head bulb and he walked in closing the door behind him, tiles cold on his bare feet, but his bare chest warm from the steam in the air. Claire bought a finger to her lip as he stepped closer, gesturing for him to be quiet. Claire’s other arm stayed still,  tucked under their youngest child up whom was laying still on her mothers chest. The little ones red hair was damp and clinging tight to her head, her cheeks red and sore pressed against Claire’s skin and eye’s still moist from drying tears. The last symptoms of teething had been bothering her for days, keeping her up past bed time and the skin behind her ears torn and scratched when being tortured by uncomfortable jaw pressure. 

Owen pulled a wooden step stool out from under the sink careful not to make much noise and he sat by the vintage tub balancing his wide frame on the thin piece of wood. Claire watched him with soft eyes while her hand ran smooth circles on Everly’s back. Husband and wife shared a smile as their eyes each fell to their daughter and Owen reached his arm to hover over the steaming water, cupping it to scoop with a single hand.  His hand filled with water, droplets falling between his fingers and he moved over to the baby tipping his palm to let the water run down her back, keeping her body warm. Claire rest her cheek on Everly’s top and the little ones blue eyes fought hard to stay open when they where growing ever heavier.

“I thought you’d be asleep” Claire said, keeping her voice to just above a whisper. 

Owen rubbed at his eyes with his palm and yawned, smiling at her with a lazy smirk, “I swapped our booking to the weekend before the trial” 

She brought her warm hand to rest on his chin and the droplet from her arm splashed on the baths rim, “You’re a good husband”

“I try my best” Owen laughed softly, and he scratched at his stubble, “It does mean that you’re sister will be here for an extra week” 

Claire grit her teeth together that made her lips wobble, “I don’t know if Karen will last two weeks out here”

Owen chuckled, “Maybe I’ll finally get her up on a horse”

Everly on Claire’s chest breathing hitched while her lips instinctually moved as if she were sucking on a pacifier and her eyes fluttered shut into sleep. Claire reached for the face washer hanging over the bathtubs side and pulled into the water, wetting it whole before laying it over Everly’s back. Owen quiet on the step stool watched her every move locking away her gentle grace in his memory to keep for harder times.   

Claire noticed him watching her, “What did Hoskins say to you today?” She asked just above a whisper, “I saw you look back at us when he was talking to you and you’ve been in your own head tonight”

Owen shook his head keeping the words of Hoskins to himself, “He didn’t say anything very interesting”

“He knows we’re your weak spot hon, unfortunately he a smart guy and he’ll use that against you”

Owen knew she was right, she always was and he rubbed his right eye with a single knuckle,“He said somethings that made me think that’s all”

“I don’t know if I’ve said this yet, but we are all going to be okay. No matter the out come” Claire smiled and she took his hand in hers, lifting his hand she pressed her lips to the back of his hand for a warm and gentle kiss. 

[…]

**SEVEN YEARS, TWO MONTHS & THREE DAYS EARLIER**

Owen’s heart had been beating out of his chest for the past six hours. The time going all to fast and all to slow as he raced to get to a labouring Claire. He had to have broken at least eight road rules as he sped towards the airport, shouting at his phone thrown on the passenger seat while he tried to arrange flights and at the same time braking several speed limits. The line at the airline gate was way to long for his patience to contain in his chest and so it ran down to his legs and his feet shuffled in his boots. His heavy boots jigging on the shining airport floor and his flicking eyes attracted the attention of the airport security and beside him came two burly men. They asked him what he was doing, why he looked ‘so nervous' with puffed out chests and authoritative voices but when he explained himself their faces pulled into sympathy and used their badges to push him up the line. 

The flight was smooth, turbulence free but Owen’s knees bounced up and down in his seat while his feet wouldn’t let him be still. The stop over in Denver almost made him tare his hair out, the endless waiting to his understanding, completely unnecessary when his baby could be being brought into the world without him. Landing in Wisconsin felt like a 1000 pound weight being lift off his chest and thankfully the late hour meant that the roads were clear and taxi’s sat in a line waiting for anyone to hail them at a nearly empty gate. His taxi driver was sympathetic to his story and took every twist and turn to get him to the hospital as fast as he could. He shoved whatever money he had at the man in the front seat and ran his way through the hospital door. The maze of sterile white halls confused him as he raced along them, losing his breath as he asked every nurse he past for a new direction. 

Owen burst through the doors of Room 713, his chest puffing, eyes frantic and feet skidding to a stop on the slippery floor. The room was quiet, calm with soft music playing from the stereo, the lighting was soft and air temperate, not to hot and not too cold. There were two woman dressed in scrubs hovering at the end of the bed in the centre and another beside them dressed in her lazy Sunday best with a camera dropped around her neck glasses pushed up in her light blond hair dishevelling it just a touch and Owen guessed her guessed to be Claire’s mother. A fourth woman, he recognised from photo as Claire’s sister sat in a chair by the head of the bed dabbing at Claire’s sweating brow with a white cloth. Then their was Claire, his Claire, she looked exhausted her skin red, and cheeks puffed, sweat running down her cheeks and fiery hair sticking to her skin. 

Her face turned at the sound of Owen bursting into the room, “You’re here” She said with breathy joy and a toothy smile. 

“Yeah I’m here. I’m here” Owen nodded, rushing over to Claire’s side he pressed a rushed and sloppy kiss to the side of her forehead, “I think I may have to write a few apology letters to some flight attendants though”

The oldest doctor looked at her watch and lift Claire’s left leg to press against her shoulder, “Okay Claire, I need you to push for me sweetheart” 

A panting Claire shock her head, “No I’m so tired. I can’t… I can’t”

“I know you’re tired darling but we need to get this baby out” The nurse answered her with a gentle yet stern voice. She looked to Owen next, presuming correctly with just her eyes that he was the baby’s father, “What’s your name sorry?” 

“O.. Owen” He stuttered, looking stunned and blinking widely at the tall doctor. 

The second doctor moved around them, collecting a new set of sterile gloves from the box on a portable trolley and handed them to the taller woman, “Okay Owen. Why don’t you sit behind Claire and let her push off you’re chest”

Owen nodded, his nostrils flaring and he jostled in one spot unsure as to what to do. Karen, if he remembered correctly, helped Claire lean forward and pulled the two pillows from behind her. He unloaded his pockets quickly and dropped his bag without a care on the ground, to climb behind a heavily breathing Claire. He settled easily behind her, bending his knees to keep his feet away from the end of the bed. Claire leaned back against him with a sweat drenched robe, she was hot and pressed with a centred pressure hard against his chest.   

Owen’s hands ran down Claire’s arms and he took her hands in his letting her push with both her arms and back against him. Karen moved from the side to the end of the bed taking one of Claire’s legs from their mother as the older woman took her camera in her hands. The two doctor’s repeated the word ‘Push’ over and over while Karen and her mother praised encouragements and Claire pushed harder and harder with grunts and moans. 

But it was all white noise, fuzzy and distant as Claire pressed harder into Owen’s back and tears already pooled in Owens eyes. He felt her jolt with another strong push. Then through the repetitive white noise the most perfect sound filled the room. Gargling cries sung out into the open space, making tears flood down Owens cheeks. Claire slumped, unclenching from having to push and her head fell back onto Owens shoulder. He kissed her, every part of her he could reach with his lips. 

“Here he is” The nurse proclaimed, with unmasked joy laced through her voice. 

She moved with a swoop and a bundle they still could not see and placed the newly born child skin to skin on Claire’s chest. Owen could barley see his son through the tears clouding up his eyes and he blinked fiercely trying to clear his sight. 

Instinctively Owen wrapped his arms underneath Claire’s and he finally brought his eyes down. His cries calming and thin legs failing a tiny baby, shades of purple and blue was the most perfect sight Owen had ever seen.“He?” Owen chocked through a closing throat, “A boy? We have a boy?”    

The nurse still hovering near by laughed with a short breath, “He is definitely a boy”

Tears flowed from his eyes again and mouth pulled into the widest smile, “I thought we were going to get a girl”

Claire moved her shoulders back, her nose touching his and she looked up with a weak smile catching his eyes for the first time since their baby was with them in the flesh, “You did?”

“Yeah” Owen breathed. 

Claire looked back to their son, arms squeezing to hold tighter onto the infant in her arms. “No, he’s William”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you liked it. Next chapter is the last, I'm gonna miss this lot. 
> 
> Kudos and Comments are always welcome.


	8. Part 4.02

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is super long. So sorry if its a bit rambly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The clawen fandom is on a high right now!!!!! So I thought I put up this last chapter. Plus it's been ages since I last did an update (Sorry my life has been crazy stressful lately). But I haven't wanted this story to end so I've been selfishly keeping it to myself. 
> 
> I really really hope you enjoy like this last instalment, I'm gonna miss these guys so much.

**PART 4.02**

“Okay so Jackson know’s exactly what he is doing all you have to do is sign for the wheat delivery tomorrow morning” Owen urged while pointing down at an order sheet he held up in his hand. 

His sister in-law looked up at him, her eyes on the verge of rolling, “Yes Owen, I did hear you the first four times you told me” Karen turned away from him before she had finished speaking, looking back at her sister who was rummaging in the top draw of her dresser.  

Owen sighed pushing his lips together with a frustrated smirk.

“.. And now he want’s to keep the boys for their first week back at school. He says he’s gonna help Zac tryout for the lacrosse team” Karen continued from where she sat on the blanket box at the end of their bed, without at second look at Owen.

Their guest had arrived the day before. The children's aunt brought in to baby sit while Claire and Owen escaped for a few nights. It was their anniversary, five years of marriage and eight in total, almost. It was near impossible to calculate the date they had actually gotten together, even determining the month was a head scratcher but it was certain however, that five years had past since they tied the knot. Owen had felt it bubbling in his chests, memories of their wedding day. William stumbling towards him little feet uneasy in dress shoes and a ring box in his hands, Finnegan cooing from the wagon that their nephew Grey pulled down the isle. The way is eyes filled with tears when he first saw Claire, glowing in beautiful white lace. He had been telling the children who sat with eager ears memories of that day, the two oldest to young to actually remember and the others not even a twinkle in his eye and they loved to hear the way he described how beautiful their mother was in her flowing dress and how hot it was that Daddy nearly passed out just waiting at the alter but ever since the night before Claire had hushed the talk of their nuptials into a whisper only heard between the two of them. 

Karen had been going through a nasty divorce over the past six month and her two boys were a  casualty of the uneasy separation of life. Through countless phone calls that had left Claire crawling into bed at two in the morning, Owen had gathered that it was bad. He liked his sister in-law, they managed to walk the fine line of enjoying each others company all while they both knew she’d snap his neck if he did anything to her little sister. Which luckily for both of them was never a scenario that would ever have to unfold.   

Claire paused with a shirt in her hand the other on the draw handle and she turned dropping her hip with a sigh, “Since when has he ever been interested in the boys hobbies?”

Owen sat down heavy with his shoulder weight falling, his breath thick as he listened for a break in the ladies conversation and the papers ruffled in his hand when he was immediately hit in the back by a knee of the children playing on the bed top.  

“I know, that’s what I said to him” Karen scoffed.

“So when the truck comes..” Owen stretched his arm out and push the order sheets into Karens view, “You have to-” 

“Babe” Claire cut him off, “She knows. We’re leaving in twenty minutes can you please pack a bag”

Owen huffed puffing out his cheeks and flinched when a pair of small arms dangled over his shoulder and around his neck. Owen stood lifting the weight of his second born as he got up and Finnegan’s legs dangled down hitting his backside, his childish laugh echoing into Owens ear, “What do I need?” He asked his wife.

Claire’s eyes stayed looking down at the shirt she was now folding, “Dress pants..” Her eyes came up to look into his, “And a button up shirt you haven’t worn in the barn”

Karen bit back a chuckle from the blanket box while squeaks and giggles came from the mattress top as Hugo pushed his sister playful down onto a stack of pillows with a ‘special power’ he roared came out from his palm. Finn’s legs wrapped up to hook onto Owen’s hips and his fathers arm propped underneath him to keep him steady. Claire looked up again pointing her hand towards the walk in closet and with an eye Owen knew to follow. So he did follow her arm and shuffled into the closet to gather his clothes. 

He took the first button up he found off the rack, and lifted it to inspect for any dirt staines for maybe torn selves that left fraying cotton. The shirt was clean as far as Owen was concerned but he lifted the shirt a little higher to show is boy for a second opinion. Finn nodded, his chin rubbing on Owen’s shoulder with a ‘mmhhhmmm’. Owen nodded back and stretched his arm around the corner of the door, the coat hanger dangling from his finger, “This one?”

“No” Claire said firmly, and Owen pulled the shirt back into the closet with a roll of his eye “The light blue one with the grey checks”

He grunted out a ‘Yep’ and slipped the shirt in his hand back onto the beam, finding the one his wife had described about four button ups down. 

Owen lumped back into the bedroom with the correct shirt hanging over his arm and he flung it on the open top of his away bag on the bed. Claire stepped over with a sigh on her lips and her weight pushed him just out of the way where she picked up the shirt to fold properly. 

“I can do it honey” Owen reminded his wife. 

Claire looked at him with a quick glare “No you can’t, you get the creases in all the wrong places and it takes me half an hour to iron”  

As Claire was pushing him further out of the way and flattening the shirt neatly onto the mattress the sound of the home phone bounced up the hallway and into their ears. Owen glanced towards the door, pulling Finnegan over his shoulder he caught the boy whom was laughing furiously and threw him onto the bed. 

“You still have a land line?” Karen asked with a smirk. 

Claire huffed a single laugh, “We’re country people”

Owen had scooted his way around Karen and then Claire and the suit case open across the floor when the ringing came to a stop. Just a moment or two later William came into the master the white cordless pressed to his ear, his gentle face concentrating on what was being said on the end of the line and he stopped just shy of Owen, “Daddy it’s for you” The boy said with his hand outstretching the phone for his father to take.

Owen took the phone from his eldest and put it to his ear as he ruffled Williams hair, “Owen Grady”

“Hello Mr Grady” The perky voice of a young woman greeted him through the phone, “This is Bess from the Aspen Meadows Resort”

Owen nodded as Claire shushed the now four children whom bounced on the bed, “Yes” he said as more as a question.

“I am just calling to let you know that your package has been upgraded by a very generous outside source. So when you arrived this afternoon your personal concierge will take you directly to your suite that is located at our eastern point and you wont have to come to the reception”

“Oh” Owen breathed with surprise, “Well thats… May I asked who this outside source is?”

Owen looked over to Claire with puzzled eyes, and he could hear the woman over the phone typing on the computer while she paused without an answer, “That is just fine Mr Grady, it was a Mr Hoskins on behalf of the company InGen”

Owen’s brain started doing loops just trying to piece together what was happening and his arm came up to rub against his stubble, “Ah…” Owen stuttered, “May I ask why they did that?”

“I’m sorry Mr Grady I wasn’t the one who dealt with your upgrade and it doesn’t state the reason why in my notes here. When you arrive my college who did deal with your upgrade will be happy to speak to you”

Owen stretched his jaw, “Umm okay thank you”

“You’re welcome Mr Grady” She said with an impeccably chirpy voice, “I look forward to seeing you this afternoon” 

Owen hung up the phone, his face still scrunched and puzzled and Claire stared at him with raised eye brows, “What was that about?”

Owen sat the phone down on the dresser and caught Hugo in mid bounce, placing his wiggling legs down onto the ground he looked at the jumping children on the bed, “Can you guys go into the lounge room and play please” 

William who’s hair was already ruffled by play and armed with a pillow to WACK his closest sibling turned his face into a pout, “Why” He wined.  

“Because I said so” Owen answered back sternly without a beat. 

The children who’s faces all turned to pouts reluctantly slid from the bed with their shoulder weighing down their little bodies and Owen stood with his hands on his hips as they sulked out of the room with sighs and huffs.  

Claire’s arms dashed out to catch Everly whom was still trying to slide off of the bed, “Not you” She said softly and dumped the one year old onto Karens lap.   

“It was the hotel, apparently” He brought his hands up into air quotes “InGen has upgraded our suite for us”

“What?”  Claire asked with a gasp and her eyebrows knitted together. 

Owen rubbed at his forehead, “I don’t know why. The hotel just rang up to tell us about the upgrade” He shrugged his shoulders, “How do they know we’re going away, and more specifically where we’re going?”

Claire shrugged her shoulders back and threw her bag of toiletries into the suit case on the floor, “Oh well, we get a room upgrade”

Owen’s eyebrows lifted, “Why are you not suspicious about this?”

“Usually I would be” Claire nodded and then her mouth curved up into a smile,“But the last time we went away just the two of us was before Hugo was born and that was basically our honeymoon” 

[…]

**SEVEN YEARS & ONE DAY EARLIER**

The last two months had gone way to quick and some how at the same time they managed to be slow and quiet. Lazy days spent in bed or taking long walks by the river and endless hours of driving around in circles to dull the cries of a gurgling infant. Owen had come to adjust to the suburbs, he couldn’t handle the site of the neighbours fence outside of Claire’s window at first and the screams of an angry engine running down the street at midnight but there was something about its same everyday simpleness that Owen found charming.

From when they first walked through the Dearings’ front door with a twelve hour old William sleeping on Claire’s shoulder her twelve by fourteen foot bedroom had become their family sanctuary. The farm stayed on his mind, of course it did but Owen had never felt such a purpose  and pull to stay away before in his life. The same of everyday became simple, most of their time spent by staring at their sleeping newborn son. It didn’t mean that there were certain things that weren’t complicated. He and Claire’s parents skirted around each other trying to figure out what relationship they should build. Claire was in a sleep deprived daze most of the time and so was he, they could barely have a serious conversation without one of them yawning or their eyes closing without even knowing it. There weren’t any clear lines in the sand as to what was happening right this minute, in the next few months and even less was known about the future. 

But one thing that Owen had known for sure was his definition of home had definitely changed. 

“And this little piggy went.. wee, wee, wee all the way home” Owen sung and William’s chunky thighs wiggled as Owens’ hands tickled at the infants feet. 

William was always happiest in the morning, his eyes drowsy from waking in the morning light and his hands opened and shut as he discovered how they moved and what they did, but the best of all was the gummy smile that Claire liked to pointed out every morning was just from gas. Owen didn’t care though and neither did she, the curve of that babies lips could light up the sun. 

William’s chubby little body warm in his tiny flannel one piece smelt so fresh of baby powered as he kicked his feet at his fathers crossed thighs. Owen with a light chuckle bouncing at his Adams apple leaned down running his two day old stubble over the babies rosie cheeks. William’s fingers reached up grabbing at his hair and Owen chuffed with jagged breaths while tickling at his sons hands with the growth on his chin when the click of a door opening brought Owen’s eyes up. 

“He’s to little to laugh” Claire told Owen with a sidewards smirk and raised brow as a puff of steam followed her out from the small ensuite. 

Owen sat up straight, his hand moving to rest across William’s stomach and eye moving over to watch the mother of his child. A towel sat on top of her head wrapping up her hair, with small free flying wisps flicking droplets of water on her cheeks and another sat below her shoulders covering the rest of her from the sudden cool of the room. She walked slowly towards the bed and stopped at the frame and leant forward to push the small tuft of blond hair on William’s top to leave behind a kiss. 

“I know” Owen nodded with a playful sigh and his innocent eye caught a touch of cleavage from the woman in front of him, “I’d love to hear it before I go”

Claire’s smirk stayed etched in her cheek as she stood up straight again and found her way over to the cupboard to fetch her clothes, “You don’t have to worry about missing anything, we’ll Skype everyday”

She looked to him with a promise in her eye and he believed in her, he did but he knew in his heart that the chance for things to slip away were inevitable in the circumstance they found themselves,  

“Yeah I know, but it’s not the same as being with you” He told her, while dropping a kiss to William’s cheek “You know I can stay an extra few days to help you pack the car for New York”

There was a pause in their gentle sounds as Claire pushed the closet door closed with a grey sweater and lazy jeans dangling over her forearm, “Owen, you’ve been calling the farm every two hours, you’re dying to get back”

Owen rolled his eyes not surprised that she had noticed his five minute exits to check on the land he left behind, he had tried to hide it, never wanting to give her the opinion that he didn't want to be there but of course she was to clever to miss it, “I’m just checking up on things … I like being with you guys more”

Claire swallowed deep, “This is a bandaid situation” She nodded with a swish of her hand, “We have to rip it off”

Owen bit a the side of his cheek, his head bobbing to acknowledge Claire’s words but even though he knew she spoke the truth he couldn’t agree. William started to gurgle from his spot between Owens thighs, his light cries growing into an angry growl that they had learnt meant that their boy was hungry.   

“Oh you’re a hungry boy” Owen chuffed softening his voice and he lift William into his arms to pass over to his mother who was already making her way over. 

Claire gathered William and laid his back along her arm as she sat down in the rocking chair they had managed to fit in beside Claire’s bed. Her focus was claimed by her gargling child while she moved quickly to loosen the tight wrap of the towel and William latched and his crying stopped in an instant.

They sat still and quiet as William nursed and Claire kept gentle eye contact with the infant in her arms. Sunlight caught through the ivory colour drapery and lit up the ends of Claire’s auburn hair, Owen smiled watching them bond from not so far away. 

Owen leaned back on the bed, propping up his elbow to rest his head in his hand, “You are going to get to the farm before he’s one right?” He asked,“I want him to see it before then”

Claire looked up from William to look into Owens eyes, as her fingers played with the babies out stretched hand. “Yes, I’ll always make sure you get to see each other”

Owen ran his tongue along his bottom lip, “You know I was serious when I said I want you both to live there with me”

Claire’s head fell back against the chair and she let out a breath through her nose, “Owen we can’t, you know we can’t”

“It’s an option” His teeth played with the side of his bottom lip. 

“I have my new job” Claire reminded him and looked down to William, adjusting him slightly before she looked back to Owen,“And you… you just broke up with your fiancé” 

“She broke up with me” He corrected her quickly and sat up properly to soften his voice, “You and him are the most important people to me okay? The invitation will always be standing”

Claire’s face froze and she pulled her lips closed, her eyes searching around Owens’ face as if she was trying to find the right words to say. Finally a breath left her mouth, “Owen.. you can say that about him but you can’t say that about me?”

Owens face scrunched with exploding confusion, “Why not? You’re the mother of my child”

Claire's eyes went back down to the infant and her hand softly ran over the fine hair on his head, “Because we don’t even know what we are”

[…]

“What are you doing?” Claire asked with a raised brow as she flopped down onto the king bed. 

Owen dashed around the ‘honeymoon suit’ of the Aspen Meadows Resort, peering into nooks and crannies, opening and closing draws while he looked up to the corners of the ceiling. His fingers juggled the lid of a decretive vase as he eyeballed the inside with a loud huff, “Checking for camera’s or something…I dunno”

“Honey” Claire sighed, sitting back up right but Owen still had his back to her  “Honey, lets not do this now”

Owen huffed, placing the lid of the vase back on it’s top and turned around to his wife, “Would they put one in the bathroom?”

“Owen” She said with a roll of her eye. 

Their journey had been an easy one, Owen was used carrying more bags than he had arms, juggling teddy bears and pacifiers while children pulled at his fingers too excited to be contained, he couldn’t remember the last time they had traveled alone. Claire had said at least three years but it had to have been more than that. 

The roads to the Casper airport moved smoothly hardly any traffic to fill the lanes and the skies were cloudless turbulence free and just quiet enough to close your eyes and wake up at the sound of a seatbelt sign. The only problem was his scepticism at the sudden kindness of the company that had been harassing him for months had followed him through the Colorado sky and up to the snowy mountain top.   

Owen lumped down beside Claire where she rest her head gently onto Owen’s shoulder and his stubble tickled against the top of her hair as he placed a kiss.  

Claire lift her head after a moment and pointed towards the far side of the room, “There’s a picnic basket”

Owens brows peeked and he got up, bounding over to the basket sitting bountiful on the small dinning table tucked into the corner of the suite. It was full of chocolates and biscuits with jams and pastes, some fresh apricots topping it off to give some colour. The wicker was brand new and a tartan patterned blanket was folded neatly and sat tucked underneath. 

Owen picked up the hand written card stuffed into the red bow around the basket rim and read it out loud,  

**_Enjoy you’re anniversary on us._ **

**_You deserve it._ **

**_InGen_ **

He looked to Claire with his teeth biting at his bottom lip. 

She smirked with a glint in her eye, “Well at least we’ve gotten one thing out of this”

“This is weird” Owen sighed lumping his shoulders downward. 

“Maybe, but - ” Claire said quizzically as she slowly unbuttoned the top few buttons of her blouse making sure to catch her husbands eye. 

Owen smirked back and flicked the piece of white card out of his hand not caring were it fell. He stride towards his wife, grin showing his teeth and when his knees hit hers he braced his arms either side of her with his muscles bursting at the seems of his green flannel.  

Her hands reached up, her eyes darkening to a deep sea blue and her fingers slipped to touch his skin as she undid the top few buttons of his skirt. Their lips met as a chuckle bubbled up into each of their chest, teeth crashing together and tongues locked while the heat of their bodies sawed high. It wasn’t long till the buttons of his shirt were all undone and he helped as she ripped it from his torso. Their motions got quicker once his shirt was tossed to the floor and his hands scrambled to rip hers over her head. 

He tossed her blouse to the side and his flexed arm held her back guiding them down onto the mattress. She pushed with the soul of her foot further up the mattress and he followed, their bodies barely lifting from one an other. Each of them were panting as their lips searched for new patches of skin to leave feverish kisses and Claire's hands traveled down between and them along his side till her fingers found his belt buckle to fumble. 

Owen grasped as she undid the clasp of the buckle and his arm propped up on either side of her to support his weight. His hands ran softly cupping her face and he pushed back her hair, their noses touching as he took his time to kiss her lips. 

He pull his head up slowly holding onto the warmth of her touch, “I’ll build you a house. Near your parent’s and your sister. You can pick out everything, the colour, whether we have a deck or not. I’ll build it”

“What?” Claire asked puzzled with a shaky breath. 

He looked into her eyes gently, “If this thing doesn’t go our way”

Her eye lids fell heavily and a moment later they slowly fluttered open, “Don’t talk like that”

“I’m just being prepared” He whispered and his breath pushed her loose wisps of fringe to fall back by her ears, “Isn’t that what you always say?” 

Claire adjusted her shoulders which made her palm run against the skin of his neck, “Usually, but I think right now we need your hidden away optimism to come out”

Owen lowered his forehead to rest onto hers,  “I’m trying”

“I know” She nodded softly and her hand ran through his hair, pulling it tight. “Now kiss me”  Her eyes fluttered and he followed her instructions, pecking her plush lips. She shook her heads with an infectious laugh and their noses bumped against each other, “Properly”

**[…]**

SIX YEARS & ELEVEN MONTHS & TWENTY SEVEN DAYS EARLIER

He hadn’t been into town yet. Three days ago he had driven straight from the airport rolling over the highway and through town without a stop, right on through to Elk and Oak. He wanted to hide away from everybody he knew, to avoid everyone congratulating him on his new born son, people asking him for pictures and the interrogations about what arrangements he and Claire had come to. He knew his town and he knew it’s people they wouldn’t be satisfied with ‘we’re figuring it out as we go’ and no deadline promise of when they will be meeting his son. 

His heart had been beating from far away ever since he had left Wisconsin. The first morning he had woken up to the sound of his alarm instead of his son, tears spilt out of the corner of his eyes before he could blink them away. Three days later he found himself still waking through the night, once at elven and then at two expecting to feel the warmth of Claire beside him and hear William’s hungry cries but instead there was just the sound of the crickets outside.   

The third day had been the hardest, the first two there was to much to do and his mind was kept busy but by the third day Sunday had come around. Work always slowed on a Sunday, he was left to check the fences alone and tinker with the dodgy tractor while everyone else enjoyed a day off. The tractor was easy to figure out, just nuts and bolts but it didn’t take up his time nearly as fast enough. His eyes flicked to his watch constantly, waiting for three o’clock to come around. Three o’clock was the time he and Claire had allotted to check in in the early days of distance. 

The sweet tune that sang out as they connected got him giddy like it were Christmas morning and he was seven years old. Claire chuckled back at him when the screen came into life with William sitting at a lean into her chest but it only latest a few glorious moments before his temperature erupted when the signal cut out after just five minutes.  

He then spent an hour screaming at the poor woman at the phone company after he couldn’t get it going again and then three after that trying and failing to fix the satellite on the roof. By dark the thirst for a frosty beverage burned down in his throat and the disappointment of when the fridge didn’t provide one push him out the door and to the road into town. 

An hour and ten minutes later with a carton riding shot gun, the beams of his headlights were the only thing alight as he first reached the outskirts of town heading back home. He settled back into the leather seat, one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the gear stick as Tim McGraw played through the scratchy radio. The road was just a straight line in amongst deep black with a few dim house lights shining white through the pine trees. He counted the mile apart houses that clung close but just far enough from town as he past, a habit from child he hadn’t yet shaken. One, two, three, four but it was half way between four and five that he realised he had slowed down by instinct. 

Curiosity moved his feet over to the break peddle and his boot eased his car to roll without any power behind it. The lights were on in the fifth house, set back behind some hedges, a single apple tree and two lemon, there was a car parked in front of the detached garage and porch light over looking the front door. Unquestionably letting people know someone was home. Owen stopped the car completely, his top teeth running over the bottom and his arms rest over the steering wheel contemplating whether he should pull over or not. 

Without better judgement he steered the car over to the grass on the side of the road and pulled on the hand break while switching the engine off. His back hit the chair hard at the same time his face tilled up shaking his head at the ceiling; he shook his head trying to tell himself that it was a bad idea, repeating the mantra over and over but his body chose to listen to the little persistent voice in the far corners of his brain and he pulled himself out of the car. 

He closed the car door quietly behind him and used the light of his watch to shine at the ground to guide his path before he rounded the hedges into better light. The driveway gate was open and pulled back against the boarder fence. He walked through it into the brightening light from the house with his hands stuffed into his pockets and his cold breath catching with a puff in the air. When he reached the small cobbled path that would take him straight to the front door he hesitated. Stop still to look around, willing his body to turn around and get back in the car but despite all off his wishing, his legs pushed forward.

It didn’t take long for him to travel up the path and for his boots to hit the bottom of the front steps. Biting at his lip and missing his last chance to turn around Owen leant forward and knocked hard on the Oak door.  

All he was left to do, was wait. 

After a thirty seconds, maybe a minute he could hear light footsteps treading across the echoing hardwood floor and not a minute later the door pulled open spilling light onto the dark front steps. Owen swallowed deep, rubbing the back of his neck with his palm as the person at the door bore into him with surprised eyes.   

The crickets in the fields filled the silence between them while their breaths caught with cold clouds in the air.

“I have a son” Owen said without so much as a greeting and he stared into the eyes of his… well he didn’t know. He didn't know what she was to him but once not to long ago he would have could her his fiancé. 

Rachel's still face didn’t give him much to go off, she had her hair pulled up into a messy bun and an oversized shirt fell low over her thighs almost completely covering the tracksuit shorts she wore. 

“I know” Rachel nodded, her voice monotone and eyes running over his feet and stopping just under his chin. She folded her arms with a bounce of her shoulder and leaned against the wooden door frame, feet crossing at the floor, “Word travels fast around here”

Owen nodded as he pushed his tongue to his cheek and he folded and stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets. His face was stern, he could feel the muscles pull tight on his cheeks and his nostrils flared wide even though he hadn’t meant to be read so easily.

“So do you want to explain to me what happened that night?”

Rachel’s back straightened and she used her shoulder to push her body off of the door frame, “There isn’t any need too” She sighed with a voice that was clearly getting defensive, “I was pretty clear the night you left”

His eyes rolled, “Rachel, how can you be like this?”

Rachel stepped forward onto the welcome mat on the plane before the door, her arms were still folded and skin burning to show a sprinkling of red, “Oh don’t bring this around to me” She snapped abrasively “‘You know exactly what happened with us, you barley looked my way because of her” She huffed, “And now you come back after two months when you’ve been doing god knows what with her, expecting me to explain things to you”

Owen brought both of his hands to his chest with his palms facing her, “Claire just had a baby. Nothing has happened between us besides looking after William”

Rachel was taken a back, “William?” She repeated in a softer voice and her head tilted to the side making her messy bun flop against her ear, “She let you name him after your grandfather?”

“It was Claire’s idea” He told Rachel and he couldn’t help the gentle smile that pulled at the corner of his lips, “Look you and I clearly can’t work, I just wanted to know what went wrong” He brought his eyes to look sincerely into hers, “And to say that I’m sorry” She looked back into his, sucking in deep breaths through her nose. She didn’t say anything back and for several moments they stood in silence, the space between them filled with awkward air. “If you don’t want to talk I’ll go”

Owen bowed his head to signal a goodbye and with a fleeting smile he turned back down the cobble stone path. 

“Owen” Rachel called out, once he was halfway down the path, “Congratulations. I’ve always known you’d be a great Dad … and I’m sure Will is beautiful baby”

“William” He corrected her softly, “Claire doesn’t like it to be shortened. But thank you he’s.. well he’s pretty great”  

She nodded wrapping her hands around her opposite elbows to protect herself from the cold. They pause again both speechless maybe each sensed it would be final time that they would be alone and she took the moment to find his eyes, “I’ll see you round, okay” 

Owen’s lips curved into a simple smile, and his hands fiddled with his car keys until he turned and walked away.

[…]

Owen had only ever been to the Casper court house once before in his life. He was fifteen the last time, his ninth grade class had taken a trip for their semester on local government. Twenty teenagers stuck on a bus for three hours just to trudge around an old building that they were all too ‘cool’ to be in. He hadn’t appreciated it back then, he could remember the tall ceilings and the thick cedar beams but he hadn’t taken the time to notice the delicate carvings in the joins of the wood and the way the marble flooring sparked as it caught the sun through the sky light. 

Surprisingly his nerves where under control, his hands weren’t shaking, his knees were locked tight and not wobbling and his mind was seemingly clear, letting him appreciate the craftsmanship in the buildings architecture. His wife stood beside him, her lips pressed together, face soft and dress crisp from the dry cleaners, heels polished and at home on the marble flooring. Anyone who didn’t know her would thick she was unfazed and comfortable in their surrounding but Owen knew better. She was flicking her hair over her shoulder even when it wasn’t resting down her front, her thumb ran over and over the skin on her palm and she was breathing out of her nose rather than a thin gap between her lips. Tell tail signs that she had collected all of his nerves as her own. 

“Where’s your sister?” She asked through an impatient breath and quickly glazed over her shoulder to look at the door.

Owen pushed up his sleeve to look down at his watch, “She should be here. She would have landed over an hour ago”

People walked past them quickly as Owen and Claire stood alone hovering to the side of the courtroom doors and a large clock ticked loudly on the main wall at the top of the hall. Their heads flicked between looking at Owens watch and the open front entrance. Owen could see the consort from InGen gathered with a team of at least four lawyers out of the corner of his eye. But even though Hoskins was standing front and centre, chest puffed and smirk smug across his face, Owen turned away. 

After watching the clock tick by a few more circles around and Claire’s foot starting to tap against the marble floor Owens knees where beginning to get a little shaky. His sister had flown in earlier that morning, she was busy back in Chicago, real busy and because of the date change the best she could do was two days leave from work and a quick flight in on the same morning as the trial. Owen didn’t blame her of course, he would have liked a day of prep in advanced but he understood. The only problem was, she was meant to be there. 

He was barley holding himself back from passing when a  court clerk came to stand in front of the doors with a clip board held tight in her hand and she cleared her throat to gain the millers attention. 

“Grady v InGen will be called next” She said, projecting her voice across the lobby “Please file in respectfully when your case is called into court” 

The clerk moved off with her head tucked down avoiding questions of the near by gathers and was out of sight all with in twenty seconds. Claire’s nails dug into Owens arm even through the thick sleeve of his suit as he whipped his face back to his wife after watching the clerk walk around the corner.

The red heads brows were knitted together in panic, “Where is your sister?!” Claire squeaked and her nails started to hurt his skin. 

“I don-”  Owen began to say, but before he could finish the sound of heels thudding at a run echoed up the long hall and stopped beside the two Grady’s. His sister almost an hour late stood puffing beside them, her makeup half done and sandy blond hair curling up at their straightened edge. 

“Sorry, Sorry” Maggie Grady gasped, as she straightened up after a fast jog, “Sorry, getting out of the airport was a bitch”

Claire let go of her grip of Owens arm, “We’re the next case”

Maggie lumped her suitcase into Owens arms while she used her own to straighten her skirt, “Is that Dad’s suit?” She asked eye balling the grey pin stripe Owen was wearing. 

Owen played with cuff of his sleeve looking down to his feet as he needed reminding of his own, “The only other suit I have is from our wedding and Claire said I wasn’t allowed to wear it to this”

“I don’t wont it to be tainted with the memory of today” Claire told her sister in-law in a voice just above a whisper while through daggers towards her husband. 

“Fair enough” Maggie nodded, “This is just a preliminary hearing okay, so they’ll ask a few questions and if they want to continue they’ll set another date or if we’re just lucky enough they will throw the whole case out” 

“How lucky do we have to be for that?” Owen asked with grim shadow under his eye. 

Maggie stepped in closer to them, “I don’t think we’ll get out that quickly, I mean we have the sympathy card but they have an endless wheel barrow of cash to throw around and that usually wins out on these things”

“Of course” He huffed with a roll of his eye. 

With his eyes still rolling the doors to the court room opened. A security officer stood beside another clerk, this time a man. He was skinny almost to the point where he looked unwell and instead of a clip board in his hand he held a thick folder. 

The man straightened his shoulders, “Grady v InGen is the next caught in session. Please would those in question please take their seats and respectfully wait for the proceedings to start”

The man turned sharply and walked back down the row of seats lined on each side of the courtroom isle. Maggie pulled the suitcase from Owens arms and Claire took a few deep breaths through her nose as Owen reluctantly nodded, fixed the tie he was wearing to sit straight around his neck. Some people from near by them started to walk in, a couple with note pads and pens in their hand which they had guessed to be journalists. Hoskins was the next lead his group in after that, at least fifteen of them filing in behind the leading man and murmuring in stuffy conversation while the Grady’s stood last to enter the room. 

Claire slipped her hand into her husbands, pulling his gaze away from the other man. She looked at him softly with worried eyes and a weak smile, “Come on”

**[…]**

SIX YEARS & NINE MONTHS & TWENTY THREE DAYS EARLIER

His bedroom was pitch black only disturbed by the fluorescent light coming from the mobile phone rattling on the side table with a loud and constant ring. Owen jolted awake, his back bolt straight with eyes blinking open to the harsh artificial light. His arm jot out blindly looking for the screaming phone and after knocking over a collection of bits and pieces onto the floor he pulled it to his ear. 

There was a rustling through the phone as the lines connected and the sound from the other end connected to his ear. In the forefront the angry cries he recognised as his son burst into his ears,  “Claire?” Owen asked clearing his voice from sleep, “What’s.. what’s wrong? Is it William?” 

“He’s okay” She answered him with a short breath and moment past where he heard her breath hitching, “Owen I can’t do this” She whimpered, her voice cracking and breaths shaky as William screamed angrily on her shoulder,  “It’s too loud and he wont sleep. He never sleeps because the noise just never stops. I thought I could do this, I really thought I could. But we’re both miserable” Her voice broke as the last words came out and her could her nose sniffling with tears he was sure were running down her cheeks “He hates the sound of the sirens, he screams and screams and I can’t do anything to stop it” 

Owen sat up properly and reached over to switch on his bedside lamp, “Claire… Claire. You have to calm down okay? Take a breath” He told her calmly. 

Claire's breath stayed hitched, cutting in and out as the phone shaking in her hand moved closer and further from her mouth, “He just wont sleep, every time I put him down a siren goes off and he wakes up screaming” She wobbled, “His cheeks are always so red, because he screams all the time…”

Owen scratched at his forehead, his own tears bubbling to the surface as he listened to her stressful breaths and scared tears, “Put the phone on speaker” 

“Okay” Claire croaked and Owen almost missed it. 

He waited for the sound to change letting him know the speaker button had been pressed and he cleared away the lump in his throat with a deep swallow. 

“Hey bud, you gotta stop crying for your Mama okay” Owen hummed, “Do you want me to sing you a song?” He kept his voice low and easy, the voice he had learnt to use at two in the morning during William’s first two months of life, “-Lets see?” He tilted his head while scratching at his stubble before the lyrics of a nursery rhyme came back to him,  _“The owl and the pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat…”_

William screams in just those few seconds seemed to simmer down to an angry gargle and Claire’s gentle laugh pulled Owen out of the song. An embarrassed smirk fell into his cheeks and he laughed with her croaky and soft in the late hour. 

The laughs died out into the night, “Owen can you come and get us?” Claire asked with her voice soft but it was firm telling him she knew what she wanted, “I don’t want to be here anymore”

“I’ll sort it out okay” He nodded knowing full well she couldn’t see him, but he did it anyway “If you don’t want to be there we’ll sort it out” He told her without hesitating. He was ready almost then and their to jump from his bed and collect her at the next break of day. 

She didn’t answer back right away. Owen could hear her hushing William, rocking him with white noise to let his eye lids fall to sleep. The infant protested with a gargle and a quick squeak but soon Owen could hear his perfect sleepy hum and the sound of his gums sucking at his favourite pacifier. 

“Thank you” Claire sucked back a breath through her nose and at least for that moment he could tell she was relieved. 

[…]

There wasn’t meant to be any breaks, the proceedings were scheduled for ninety minutes that was it but still after those ninety minutes spilled into a hundred and ten the judge wasn’t yet finished with them. The judge called a recess, which was teetering somewhere between a nice break and completely irritating. Claire was in the bathroom and Maggie trying to find a spare room for them to spend the next hour undoubtedly go over everything again which left Owen alone to pace.

He was only walking the short stretch of the length of a hall bench, on the other side of the bathrooms with his head down and hands stuffed in his pockets. 

“It’s rough in there isn’t it?” 

The words that came from just in front of him made Owen bring his face up from staring at the floor. Vic Hoskins stood in front of him, his hands also in his pockets and hair clearly laced with gel. 

Owen stood up straight and levelled his shoulders, “I’m not allowed to talk to you Hoskins”

The older man chuffed and single laugh, “Alright, alright we can play by the rules” He said in a seemly levelled voice though he lingered for a moment, possible waiting for Owen cause a ruckus but Owen stood his quiet ground and Hoskins started to walk off, not with out turning back over his shoulder with a smug grin, “I love the smell of this place, it smells like.. justice”

Owen bit his tongue tight, his nostril flaring and eyes burning with anger as he watched Hoskins saunter away. His eyes followed him with a scowl hidden behind a pulled lip until the rounded man had joined the circle of other suited men. 

Maggie appeared beside her older brother, moving next to him without him seeing her coming, “Were you talking to him? I told you not to talk to him” She scold him. 

“He came over to talk to me, I told him to back off” Owen sighed and moved to turn his and Maggie’s back to Hoskins and his team. 

She raised her left brow, “Civilly?”

“Yes Mags, I can behave myself” Owen half rolled his eyes. 

Maggie raised her other brow to join the left and they shared a sneaky smirk before she balance her suitcase on her knee and pulled out of it a white envelope, “Dad wanted me to give you this. I didn’t get the chance before we went in”

Owen took the envelope from Maggie’s hand with a tilted head, “What is it?”

Maggie took her time in answering, expelling a deep breath before she looked up to him, “It’s a letter from Grandad, Dad told me where to find it” She smiled slowly at her brother and Owen quickly looked down to the envelope in his hands. He turned it over and in the centre of the white rectangle his name was written in black ink in the handwriting of his much wiser elder. 

[…]

**SIX YEARS & EIGHT MONTHS & TWENTY ONE DAYS EARLIER**

It was only meant to take two weeks to get Claire packed up and out of the city that never sleeps.  She hadn’t fully unpacked her apartment in the two months she had been there which did help, her apartment was basically just two bedrooms and a lounge of tossed baby blankets and scattered pacifiers which she had managed to mostly throw into bags when ever she had a fleeting spare moment. She had done her part but it was a day before he was meant to take off for New York his truck full of petrol and trailer locked tight onto the bull bar that his phone rang with the news he had been waiting to hear for over a year. But it was news that knocked the wind right out of him. 

Owen didn’t think he would cry so hard, he thought with all the warning signs and all the time they had known D day was coming and coming soon that he would just suck back some tears and slowly sip on some whisky in his lazy chair on the porch with the sun going down over his farm. But instead streams of heavy tears pored out of his eyes dropping heavy onto his work boots and he was alone and grieving without someone else to hold. 

It took him three days to come out of the fog, three days to recognise that his Grandfather was no longer in pain and three days to realise that the legacy of the farm now truly did rest on his shoulders. Then came the logistics of it all like getting his Grandfather back to Wyoming, sorting through wills, speaking to family he hadn’t spoken to in years and organising a funeral. The day of the actual funeral Owen couldn’t really remember, or as a survival mechanism just chose to ignore, his best button up felt tight around his neck and ten gallon hat rode low to hide is watering eyes while he spent the whole day wishing he was back in Claire’s quiet room on the second floor of 4 Evans St Madison.  

A death in the family made every thing move quickly, everyone gathering together and farewelling the person they loved just days after they had left them. Owen couldn’t remember it being so quick after his mother died, back then it had felt like a lifetime whereas as an adult he thought it had moved a little too quickly or maybe Owen just needed everything to have move quickly.  It had set him back from his original plans no matter how quickly the proceedings had gone making it a month Claire had to spend somewhere she didn’t want to be. 

Finally after another couple of days he was able to make his way East. It only took him a day and a half without a stop in-between, which Claire berated him for when she pointed out the dark bags under his eyes. William could laugh, not a proper fully belly laugh but little chuffs fell out of his mouth once Owen had him in his arms again, rubbing his thick stubble over fresh little cheeks and kissing him all over and Claire’s warm hand resting on his arm.  

It felt so warm and right the way it was meant to be the three of them together and heading in one direction. West.

“Okay so we have everything? Nothing is left behind?” Owen asked as he adjusted his drivers seat and fixed the wing mirror on his side. 

Claire shook her head as she took the step up into the high truck but suddenly as she sat herself down her eyes widen and she turned her face towards the back seat with a gasp, “Where’s the baby?”

Owen’s head jerked back to look into the back seat, panic so quick to take him over. His blood pressure must have risen by a thousand in just one simple second. Though with a long roll of his eye and the content gurgle of his son in the carrier it didn’t take him long to realise he was the butt of a joke, “You’re a lot funnier than you look”

She laughed as she clipped her seatbelt in and Owen couldn’t help but join her as he flicked on his turning indicator. At the next clear break in traffic he pulled his truck into the flow of cars taking them into the start of their journey. The streets moved smoothly for three turns maybe ten minutes of sitting in the car they hit their first red light and came to a stop at the back of at least fifty backed up cars. 

The footfall on the street kept moving with a mid morning pace while barley two cars could get through the short green light. Inside the car the heater buzzed as Claire unclipped her belt and pushed herself up to look over the top of Williams carrier. She came back to sit properly giving Owen a silent signal that the baby had fallen asleep in the ten minutes of movement. They shared a warm glance with edges of their mouths curving up into the etch of a dimple and kept the car quiet to keep the baby snoozing in the first moments of sleep.  

“Im sorry we couldn’t come to the funeral” Claire looked to Owen gently after a few minutes of quiet. 

Owen expelled a deep breath, “It’s okay. Travelling alone with him is hard, I didn’t expect you to. I’m just glad he got to meet before…” 

“Thank you, really” Claire said with her voice soft and she moved her hand to sit on top of his on the gear stick, “No one else would have dropped everything to come and rescue me”

Owen looked away to the road in front with his tongue pressed to the side of his lip, “I wouldn’t be to sure, I’ve met your sister” He said with a chuckle and he turned to look back at her, felling the warmth of her hand on top of his, “And I didn’t rescue you, you don’t need rescuing”

Claire wet her dry lips and pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear, “Maybe not, but I appreciate the help”

He nodded, eyes finding it hard to look into hers. Maybe in fear of being too vulnerable or scared of saying the wrong thing or maybe it was due to the grief that kept pounding in his heart but whatever it was his eyes kept darting back to the banked up traffic and permanent red light. “Are you sure this is what you want?” He asked with a single raised brow “It’s nothing like what you’re used too”

“I want to raise him together and together is at the farm” 

Owen turned his face back towards the mother of his child where his eyes could finally meet hers “Me too” He whispered and then he waited a beat, “What do you mean when you say ‘together’? ”

Claire’s eyebrows raised and she shook her head in confusion, “What do you mean?” 

“I mean” He breathed loudly and took his hand off the steering wheel and let it fall down onto his lap, “Will you, you know. Be my girlfriend?” 

At the sound of his words Claire’s face beamed with a smile almost splitting her face down the middle. Her top teeth bit over her bottom lip and the dimples in her cheeks deepened while her pony tail bounced along with her nodding, “Yes Owen Grady, I will be your girlfriend” 

Owen barely waited until her answer had left her lips before he leaned over the middle console, his teeth glowing with his smile and he kissed her hard on the lips as she leaned in to make it easier for him. 

[…]

“What’s this?” Claire asked as she pulled the white envelope Maggie had given Owen earlier out of the front pocket of his blazer. 

Owen watched her flick over the envelope to find the side where his name was printed, “A letter from my Grandad” 

“Billy?” Claire clarified and looked back up with a sudden warmth in her eye, “What does it say?”

Owen shock his head gently letting it fall on the back on the headrest of drivers seat, “I haven’t read it yet but I know what it will say”

She pushed the loose bits of her hair behind her ear, “What will it say?”

Owen scratched at his eyebrow and looked out over the top of the steering wheel with a squint before he looked back to Claire with a breath through his nose,“It will say that its okay if I can’t hold onto the farm, that I didn’t let the family down and that he loved me more than he could ever love a patch of dirt” He told her softly. 

Claire leaned over the centre console and slipped the envelope back into her husbands front pocket. She fell back into her seat and reached for his hand pulling it into her own, “I’m proud of you”

“For what?” Owen asked with a smirk, squeezing her hand tight. 

“For being you” She smiled back and he lift her hand with his own kissing her skin softly, he lingered to smell the perfume dabbed onto her wrist. Claire’s thumb crossed over his and after a moment of silently holding each others eye she broke away to nod to the window of the cottage sitting in front of them, “Should we go tell them?”

The afternoon sun was coming down over the fields, painting colours of orange and pink into the sky. The white weather boards of their cottage popped with the with the beautiful colours in the sky  from where they sat overlooking it in Owen stationary pickup. The bay window placed perfectly in the centre above the veranda was a light in sun and its curtains where pulled back letting the afternoon in. Through the glass Claire and Owen could see their children playing. Smiles covered their faces from ear to ear as they jumped and leaped. They where laughing with rosie cheeks and ruffled hair, their childish energy bursting from their finger tips, even William whom had known where his parents had been all day. 

Their joy and happiness almost brought a tear to Owen’s eye. A happiness that he wished he could bottle and take a sip. He should be happy, he knew he should be more than happy, and he was in his veins and in the blood pumping through his heart but maybe his body needed time to adjust to the relief he hadn’t yet let wash over him. The judge had ruled in their favour after three hours inside of the court room. Three long hours of tension and then confusion in a cycle that they all feared would never end. Until the judge in firm words had given favour to the Grady’s side. At first Owen didn’t believe it even after the gavel had crashed down but thankfully it only took him a moment after Maggie turned around to them beaming with a proud smile and his arms reached out to pull his wife tight against his chest where he wasn’t going to let go. 

Owen had woken that morning unsure of what would be the outcome, he had been trying to listen to his wife’s advise. Trying hard to find the optimistic side of himself but the past several months had almost squeezed it all out of him and he woke truly wondering whether the next day he would be able to call Elk and Oak his own. Now after months of doubt he knew he was able to call his land his and if the universe was gracious enough so would his children. 

Owen pulled the side of lip up, “We still aren’t completely out of this yet” 

“We won today darling” Claire reminded him softly and she let out a breath of relief, “Lets just have today”

The Grady's were not completely out of the woods just yet, and maybe thats why the relief of today hadn’t fully rushed over him. There would be a small part of him that may always worry, he would worry about his land and his business and his family, their health and their happiness. He would worry about little things and things with bigger consequence, but for now they had won and he was indeed happy. With his wife smiling by his side and her warm hand in his. He was allowed to be happy. Neither couldn’t say what was to come now or in the future in fact nobody could, but the solid ground beneath their feet meant that right now they had their home. And for those that say a home is the people who fill it, they are correct. But a home could shape those people and those people shape the home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've really had a hard time letting this story go. So I really hope you've enjoyed the ride. 
> 
> Comments and Kudo's are always welcome.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudo's are always welcome.


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